Bangladesh arms haul case: Jamaat defers nationwide strike

The fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami today deferred to Thursday a planned strike to protest the death sentence given to its chief along with ULFA leader Paresh Barua because of an annual congregation of Muslims and Saraswati Puja.
The group had called for the strike tomorrow to protest the death sentence handed down to Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, Barua and 12 others in a 2004 arms smuggling case.
Jamaat leader Shafiqur Rahman said in a statement the party would observe a "peaceful" agitation across Bangladesh tomorrow. The strike was put off till Thursday.
The second phase of the Bishwa Ijtima, the second largest Muslim congregation in the world, will end on Sunday while Saraswati Puja falls on Tuesday.

A special tribunal in the southeastern port city of Chittagong handed down the death penalty on Thursday to Nizami, who was industries minister in a previous BNP-led coalition government.
Besides the Jamaat chief, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader and former minister Lutfozzaman Babar and two retired army generals who headed intelligence agencies were also sentenced to death.

Yesterday, Jamaat claimed the government was "plotting to kill" Nizami. It dubbed the arms haul cases "false and unfounded" and called the trial a "farce" and "politically motivated".
The main opposition BNP described the tribunal's verdict as a "deep conspiracy" to ruin it.

Barua, a fugitive, was given the death sentence in absentia. He now leads a faction of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) opposed to talks with the Indian government. ULFA for long has had bases and business interests in the Chittagong area.
Around 1,500 boxes containing submachine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, submachine carbines, Chinese pistols, 840 rocket launchers, 27,000 grenades and 11.41 million bullets were seized from 10 trucks in the early hours of April 2, 2004.