1971 ideals must be defended

Speakers at a citizens' rally in Sylhet city yesterday said the ideals of the Liberation War should be defended at any cost, and none should dare to hurt the spirit.
The country's women have made the national economy vibrant but Hefajat-e Islam wants to take them backwards, said Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman.
"If we want to ensure the rule of law, all should stand up unitedly against the backdated ideas of Hefajat," he told the programme in Sylhet district administration auditorium. "We want to see Bangladesh as a welfare state and a secular country to uphold the spirit of the hard-earned independence."
"Bangladesh Rukhey Darao", a Dhaka-based platform of civil society members, organised the division-level rally with a five-point demand, including banning of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir, accelerating the trial of war criminals, resisting communal violence, and thwarting any move to make Bangladesh a Taliban-style state.
The platform's Sylhet chapter convener Prof Abdul Aziz, also vice-chancellor of Metropolitan University of Sylhet, chaired the rally.
Laying importance on accelerating the war crimes trial, Anisuzzaman, one of the 33 conveners of the platform, said Jamaat had employed lobbyists at home and abroad, including Europe and America, to foil the process of the trial. He called upon all to join the forum's national conference in the capital in September.
Former adviser to a caretaker government Sultana Kamal gave her reactions to the observations of Human Rights Watch, a US-based rights body, about the war crimes verdict against former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam. She said, "We don't need to go much to justify the misdeeds of Jamaat and its leaders during 1971."
Liberation War Museum trustee Sarwar Ali and Dhaka University's Prof MM Akash also spoke. Sylhet Press Club President Ahmed Nur read out the demands.