A protestor at Shabagh with the words ‘Sayeedi chorar fashi holo’ (Sayeedi hangs) painted on his back. Delwar Hossain Sayeedi was a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami who after 1971 had become a popular religious orator especially in the rural areas, and had also served as a Member of the Bangladesh parliament. The International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh originally sentenced Sayeedi to a death penalty in February 2013 for crimes against humanity (mass murder, rape and arson) in the war of 1971 but it was later committed to life term imprisonment. The protester’s act of body painting is a reminder of Noor Hussain, who was killed during pro-democracy protests against the rule of military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1987. He had inscribed on his chest and back “Down with autocracy” and “Let democracy be freed.”
