Dhaka, March 12 The Bangladesh parliament on Thursday condoled the deaths of several national and international leaders, including former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bangladesh's Khaleda Zia, and the slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The maiden session of the 13th parliament adopted a motion to condole the deaths, initially including the names of late Pope Francis and Matia Chowdhury, a former parliamentarian and leader of the Awami League, the party of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
However, after the main opposition Jamaat-e-Islami insisted, the names of the 1971 war criminals, who were tried as collaborators of Pakistani troops during the country's Liberation War, were also included.
The motion also included the names of those killed during the July-August mass protests that toppled the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024.
Newly elected Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, a veteran of the 1971 liberation struggle, agreed to include the names of the war criminals, as Jamaat claimed the initial list was "one-sided."
The motion with the expanded list included Jamaat's hanged former chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, along with its senior leaders Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, Maulana Abdus Subhan, Abdul Quader Mollah, Mir Quasem Ali, and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman.
Sayeedi, however, died in prison while serving a prison sentence, while Subhan died of natural causes.
A separate condolence proposal was also raised for the hanged Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury, who was also tried for 1971 war crimes for siding with Pakistani troops to prevent Bangladesh's 1971 independence.
BNP lawmaker and parliamentary Chief Whip Nurul Islam Moni endorsed the names.
The first day of the parliament also saw a walkout and demonstration by the opposition over the President's address, even though the speech was, as per practice, prepared by the government.
The 13th parliament opened in an extraordinary manner by keeping the Speaker's chair vacant, as tradition dictates that the outgoing Speaker or, in his/her absence, the Deputy Speaker should preside over the maiden session of the new Jatiya Sangsad.
Outgoing Speaker Shirmin Sharmin Choudhury had resigned and remains in an undisclosed location after the dissolution of the last parliament by the interim regime led by Muhammad Yunus, which also sent Deputy Speaker Shamsul Haque Tuku to jail.
The Bangladesh constitution demands that the President address the opening sitting of the new parliament, but when President Mohammad Shahabuddin approached the House to deliver his speech, Jamaat MPs created uproar and walked out of the House.
Jamaat's crucial ally, the National Citizen Party (NCP), staged demonstrations outside parliament, also targeting Shahabuddin.
The NCP is led by those who spearheaded the 2024 street protests that toppled the Awami League government.
Jamaat, on Wednesday, had expressed strong reservations against the President's address, calling Shahabuddin's inaugural speech "unacceptable" since he was an "accomplice of the autocrat," as he was elected to the post by the Awami League-led parliament.
"We believe the President (Shahabuddin) does not have any right to address the parliament. He is an accomplice of the autocrat," Jamaat's nayeb-e-ameer or deputy chief Abdullah Mohammad Taher told another media briefing.
The BNP won with a two-thirds majority in the February 12 general elections, while Jamaat emerged as the main opposition, a position the far-right party gained for the first time since its founding in 1941.
