TUI RAZAKAR

Compiled By : Habib

Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, a forum for Secular Bangladesh and Trial of War Criminals of 1971, yesterday brought out a protest procession on the Dhaka University (DU) campus demanding the trial of war criminals.

Freedom fighters, students, cultural activists, civil society representatives and general people took part in the programme that also demanded punishment to Jamaat-Shibir cadres who assaulted freedom fighter Sheikh Muhammad Aman Ali at the Diploma Engineers’ Institute in the city on July 11.

Starting from the Central Shaheed Minar, the procession paraded around Doyel Chattar, TSC and then returned to the Shaheed Minar.

Around 2000 people, who took part in the procession, chanted various slogans against the war criminals, Jamaat leaders and commanders of Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakaars.

People standing on the roadside also expressed their solidarity with the processionists.

Earlier at a rally on the Shaheed Minar, DU Professor Muntasir Mamun read out a declaration on behalf of the Nirmul Committee.

The declaration demanded immediate trial of war criminals constituting a special tribunal, and ban on the so-called freedom fighters’ organisation ‘Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad’ and the politics of Jamaat-e-Islami for its anti-liberation war role.

The Nirmul Committee also called for raising the honourarium of the freedom fighters to Tk 10000 instead of present Tk 900 and free treatment for the freedom fighters and their family members in all hospitals.

It also urged the political parties to boycott Jamaat and not to forge any alliance with it.

National Professor and President of the advisory council of the Committee Kabir Chowdhury presided over the rally which was also addressed by DU Prof Anwar Hossain, Sector Commanders Maj Gen (retd) KM Shafiullah, Lt Col (retd) Abu Osman Chowdhury, and journalist Shahriar Kabir.

Kabir Chowdhury said the government must start the trial of the war criminals by constituting special tribunal, otherwise, the government would have to face public fury.

Gen Shafiullah said though the chief adviser, army chief, chief election commissioner had told about the trial of the war criminals but there were no such steps.

Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad, Projanma Ekattor, Bangladesh Chhatra League, Bangladesh Chhatra Union, JSD-Chhatra League, Greater Mirpur Muktijoddha Oikya Forum, Uttoradhikar Ekattor and other social and cultural organisations took part in the rally and the procession.

Compiled By : Habib

As Bangladesh’s bloody war of independence from Pakistan came to its end, Dr MA Hassan went in search of his brother.

He was afraid that Selim, who like him was an officer in the pro-liberation forces, had been killed in one of the last battles of the conflict, and he wanted to recover his corpse.

He didn’t find it, but as he stumbled through a marsh at the northern edge of Dhaka, he came across a horrific scene.

“That day, 31 January 1972, I saw a few hundred bodies, mutilated dead bodies, littered all around that place,” he recalled. “There were marks of torture on every body; nails turned out, eyes gouged out, hearts taken out.”

He added: “Some were female, their breasts were amputated, private parts mutilated. I had to push the bodies one by one to make my way. Mostly they were the innocent public.”

We did not take part in any of the crimes that has been alleged against us

Abdur Razzak, Jamaat-e-Islami lawyer

At that time, hundreds of other mass graves were also being discovered across the newly independent country. This followed a nine-month war when the Pakistani army tried to bludgeon the citizens of its eastern province into renouncing their dreams of self-rule.

The crisis was precipitated when East Pakistanis (who later became Bangladeshis) voted overwhelmingly in favour of autonomy and West Pakistan responded by sending in its army.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, including Hindus, political activists, intellectuals and students. The Pakistani army carried out “collective punishment” where they suspected villagers of helping the freedom fighters.

Thousands of women were raped, millions fled into India. Bangladeshis say the killings amounted to a genocide and that three million people died.

‘Notorious’

Thirty-six years later, Dr Hassan took me back to the place where he had come across the corpses, an area called “Black Water”. It is one of the wet wastelands that ring the Bangladeshi capital and life there is now perfectly normal, if bleak. When we visited, men were smashing bricks into chips to help build a new road, and women and children were washing in a pond.

There is no memorial to the hundreds of people killed there and none of the killers has ever been brought to justice. But what he witnessed has inspired Dr Hassan to do something about that.

He is a leading member of the War Crimes Fact Finding Committee which is dedicated to investigating the massacres and putting pressure on the government to hold war crime trials.

Although most killings were carried out by the Pakistan army, many locals helped them.

These collaborators became members of so-called peace committees, or armed militia of razakars (volunteers).

In one of the most notorious incidents of the war, more than 150 academics and journalists (including BBC reporter Nizamuddin Ahmed) were rounded up in Dhaka on the eve of Pakistan’s defeat and killed by members of a group call Al-Badr, which was allegedly made up of members of the religious party Jamaat-e-Islami.

At the end of the war hundreds of alleged collaborators were arrested, and many were executed by pro-liberation forces.

But Bangladesh’s leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then granted a general amnesty and subsequent governments shied away from confronting such a controversial issue.

The War Crimes Fact Finding Committee is now at the forefront of a campaign for justice, which has gathered momentum in Bangladesh since a military-backed interim government took over in January 2007. The campaigners have been encouraged by the government’s promise of political reforms.

Accused

That is because this is now a deeply political issue. Many of the people accused of committing war crimes have gone on to become influential public figures. Jamaat-e-Islami has gone from being a fringe party in 1971, to a junior coalition partner in the last elected government.

The campaigners are demanding that the authorities block Jamaat from standing in the next elections to be held in December.

None of the accusations against them are new. Reporters covering the war for newspapers such as The Times of London, and the New York Times, wrote at that time that Al-Badr comprised Jamaat members.

The War Crimes Fact Finding Committee has spent the last 19 years gathering reams of documents and eyewitness accounts to back up their claims, and has handed them over to the government, along with the names of 1,150 alleged war criminals.

But Jamaat-e-Islami, which describes itself as a “moderate Islamic political party that believes in democracy and human rights” says it is the victim of a political vendetta. None of its leaders has ever been prosecuted for their alleged activities during the war and its lawyer Abdur Razzak says the accusations are baseless.

“In this country the law of defamation has become totally ineffective,” he said. “If I say you are a war criminal there is nothing you can do about it. This is being used against Jamaat-e-Islami for a political purpose.

“We did not take part in any of the crimes that has been alleged against us.

“Had there been any specific allegations, there would have been prosecutions in the last 36 years.”

But Dr Hassan, who has received death threats since publishing the list of alleged war criminals, denies he has a political agenda. He says he doesn’t want to “take revenge, but to break the silence of impunity”.

Some of the campaigners worry that that silence will never be broken, and that unless war crime trials establish the truth soon, then there is a danger that the history of Bangladesh’s cruel birth will be rewritten.

In response, a group of bloggers has now started posting archives on the web so that anyone with an internet connection can discover for themselves what happened.

Compiled By : Habib

Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, a forum for Secular Bangladesh and Trial of War Criminals of 1971, yesterday brought out a protest procession on the Dhaka University (DU) campus demanding the trial of war criminals.

Freedom fighters, students, cultural activists, civil society representatives and general people took part in the programme that also demanded punishment to Jamaat-Shibir cadres who assaulted freedom fighter Sheikh Muhammad Aman Ali at the Diploma Engineers’ Institute in the city on July 11.

Starting from the Central Shaheed Minar, the procession paraded around Doyel Chattar, TSC and then returned to the Shaheed Minar.

Around 2000 people, who took part in the procession, chanted various slogans against the war criminals, Jamaat leaders and commanders of Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakaars.

People standing on the roadside also expressed their solidarity with the processionists.

Earlier at a rally on the Shaheed Minar, DU Professor Muntasir Mamun read out a declaration on behalf of the Nirmul Committee.

The declaration demanded immediate trial of war criminals constituting a special tribunal, and ban on the so-called freedom fighters’ organisation ‘Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad’ and the politics of Jamaat-e-Islami for its anti-liberation war role.

The Nirmul Committee also called for raising the honourarium of the freedom fighters to Tk 10000 instead of present Tk 900 and free treatment for the freedom fighters and their family members in all hospitals.

It also urged the political parties to boycott Jamaat and not to forge any alliance with it.

National Professor and President of the advisory council of the Committee Kabir Chowdhury presided over the rally which was also addressed by DU Prof Anwar Hossain, Sector Commanders Maj Gen (retd) KM Shafiullah, Lt Col (retd) Abu Osman Chowdhury, and journalist Shahriar Kabir.

Kabir Chowdhury said the government must start the trial of the war criminals by constituting special tribunal, otherwise, the government would have to face public fury.

Gen Shafiullah said though the chief adviser, army chief, chief election commissioner had told about the trial of the war criminals but there were no such steps.

Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad, Projanma Ekattor, Bangladesh Chhatra League, Bangladesh Chhatra Union, JSD-Chhatra League, Greater Mirpur Muktijoddha Oikya Forum, Uttoradhikar Ekattor and other social and cultural organisations took part in the rally and the procession

Compiled : Habib

An assault on a freedom fighter by some operatives of Jamaat-e-Isalmi and its students’ wing Shibir on Friday in the capital sparked widespread condemnations and protests across the country yesterday.

The operatives of the political organisations, well documented as major anti-liberation forces in the country, dragged and kicked veteran freedom fighter, Sheikh Mohammad Ali Aman, as he demanded immediate trial and execution of war criminals while speaking to the news crew of a private TV channel outside the venue of a representatives’ meeting of a Jamaat backed organisation ironically named ‘Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad’ or the National Forum of Freedom Fighters.

Mohammad Ali attended the programme at Diploma Engineers Institution thinking the organisation was a platform for freedom fighters, but ultimately had a violent awakening to its real character.

“Don’t ask me to describe the assault on me. I can’t narrate the ordeal, I can’t bring shame on the liberation war,” the valiant freedom fighter burst into tears yesterday as he uttered these words.

Asked whether he will file a case, Mohammad Ali firmly said he will not file a case as an individual, adding, “The government must take legal actions against the perpetrators as the assault on me was an assault on all freedom fighters and desecration of the liberation war.” he told The Daily Star in the office of private satellite television ETV.

Hailing from Tangail, the freedom fighter fought in the liberation war under sector 11 as a member of the First Bengal Regiment.

He hoped that the caretaker government will arrest the perpetrators and ensure exemplary punishments for them.

Mohammad Ali said he was leaving the programme after speakers there had started delivering speeches against the sector commanders of the liberation war. As he came downstairs, journalists asked him to say a few words about the programme, so he demanded immediate execution of collaborators including the Razakars and Al Badars. As he said that, Jamaat-Shibir activists dragged him away from there into a room kicking him on the way.

The Jamaat-Shibir operatives also confined an ETV reporter inside a room there and tried to snatch the recorded film from the camera crew who managed to escape. The reporter however was released after an hour after his colleagues rushed to the scene.

CONDEMNTIONS
Different pro-liberation organisations and liberation war heroes yesterday strongly condemned the assault on the veteran freedom fighter by Jamaat-Shibir activists.

They also condemned the fact that ‘anti-liberation’ forces like Jamaat nowadays even get the gall to form a freedom fighters forum under its umbrella, even after being the ‘leader of collaborators’ during the liberation war.

Harun-Ar-Rashid, chief coordinator of Sector Commanders’ Forum, said the government’s silence regarding the matter so far has been ‘despicable’. He demanded immediate arrest and trial of the perpetrators.

Dhaka City Unit Command of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad, the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Udichi Shilpi Goshthi, Bangladesh Chhatra Union, Bangladesh Muktijoddha Union, and Bangladesh Jubo Union also strongly condemned the assault and demanded trial of the perpetrators.

The organisations said ‘the so-called freedom fighters, who are hobnobbing with Jamaat, are the enemies of the country’. They urged all genuine freedom fighters to be united to resist the ‘war criminals’.

The organisations also demanded a ban on Jamaat and Shibir as political organisations and a ban on religious obscurantist politics in general, while demanding trials of war criminals.

Ekattorer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee also condemned the incident.

Our DU correspondent added, Bangladesh Chhatra Union (BCU), a left leaning student organisation, yesterday evening burnt three effigies of Razakars, Al Badars and Al Shams naming the trio ‘Jammat-Shibir axis’ in front of Raju Memorial on Dhaka University (DU) campus protesting at Friday’s assault on the freedom fighter.

Later, Progotishil Chhatra Jote (PCJ), an alliance of left leaning student organisations in DU, brought out a protest march and held a rally on the same spot protesting Friday’s ‘abomination’.

Our Pabna correspondent reported that Pabna District Unit Command of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad, held a protest meeting on its office premises yesterday. Leaders of the freedom fighters assembly said the people of the country are uniting around the demand for punishments for war criminals.

Demanding exemplary punishment of the perpetrators, leaders of Sector Commanders’ Forum Maj Gen (retd) KM Shafiullah and Col (retd) Abu Osman Chowdhury during a discussion meeting yesterday said Jamaat who opposed the liberation war now has the gall to form a freedom fighters’ organisation.

“We will have to save the nation form their hands,” said the war heroes.

Harun-Ar-Rashid said freedom fighters are the best sons of the soil. It is the responsibility of the government to protect them. “The government will be responsible if the freedom fighters took the laws in their own hands,” he cautioned.

Islami Research Council organised the discussion titled “War criminals in the eye of Islam: trial and punishment” at the Jatiya Press Club.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-backed Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad said their volunteers prevented a number of people who tried to forcefully enter the conference hall Friday.

In a statement it also said ETV recorded it on purpose and interviewed those people.

“ETV along with some yellow journalists staged the matter to foil the conference,” reads the press release

Compiled by : Habib

Bangladesh Chashi Kalyan Samity (BCKS), farmers’ wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, but also registered as an NGO, remained the party’s financial front through illegal banking in at least 17 districts over a decade, sources say.

Following a changed scenario after 1/11, the NGO has shut down its offices and swindled a huge amount of money collected through deposits, special deposit schemes and investment on loans among members since 1997.

The BCKS business was also unlawfully sold to Jamaat supporters for covertly continuing the financial activities.

Dissident BCKS officials, involved Jamaat leaders and victims say the accurate amount of misappropriation cannot be found out without proper inquiry. But they add the figure would be minimum Tk 100 crore collected from about five lakh people.

The sources say each of seven BCKS branches in Rajshahi earned around Tk 2.5 crore annually and the NGO staffs were engaged in misappropriation from the very beginning.

A large number of officials and employees, who were also members of Jamaat and its front wings, had left both job and party in protest against the cheating. Some dissident employees are now on the run following threats on their lives by Jamaat men.

Rafikul Islam, formerly a member of Islami Chhatra Shibir and BCKS field worker, on June 16 filed a general diary (GD) with Puthia Police Station. He says in the GD he has been threatened with death for revealing BCKS “secrets”.

“I couldn’t even imagine that Jamaat men were cheating,” Nazmul Haque told The Daily Star. He was a Rokon (member) of Jamaat’s Bagha unit and BCKS assistant director and resigned from both posts in September 2007.

“Members used to express anxiety over future of their money. I always assured them that Jamaat men cannot cheat. I had such confidence in Jamaat that I promised to return their money were they cheated.

”My illusions are now shattered. I’ve become penniless as I had to return money to many members from my pocket.”

Nazmul was not alone. Aminul Islam, a BCKS supervisor, field workers Rafiqul Islam of Damadi village, Nazrul Islam, Khalid of Namajgram and Aminul of Agla also left both party and job.

Even a number of Jamaat leaders have expressed opinions against BCKS activities.

“We were against Jamaat’s involvement in financial activities… loan recovery with interests and irregularities were turning us into enemies of the people,” said Rafiqul Islam, Chapainawabganj BCKS president and district Jamaat executive member.

“The closure came more as a result of our demand than the central direction,” Islam added.

Jamaat members — Rakibul Islam, BCKS’ regional coordinator, and Abu Hanif, Pabna district president — echoed Rafiqul.

BCKS BECOMING NGO
BCKS came into existence before the country’s independence.

Maulana Abul Kalam Muhammad Yousuf, founder of collaborator Razakar force and convener of Khulna district peace committee during the Liberation War, was also president of East Pakistan Chashi Kalyan Samity.

Now acting Jamaat ameer, Yousuf still heads BCKS. The district and upazila Jamaat ameers were made BCKS advisers across the country, the sources say.

However, BCKS got registered as an NGO for farmers’ welfare with the Department of Social Welfare in September 1990 showing its inception in June 1977.

It also became involved in banking in different districts in 1997 and availed the social welfare department’s approval to expand business across the country in January 2002.

It also managed the NGO Affairs Bureau (NAB) registration in January 2005 for receiving foreign funds.

Economist Abul Barakat in an essay on “Economics of Fundamentalism” writes that NAB registration was contradictory to law of the land that says “political party or their affiliates cannot be registered with NAB”.

Contacted, NAB Assistant Director (Registration) Pranab Kumar Ghosh said during registration there was no objection from the home ministry.

However, Mozakkher Ali, deputy secretary, security-4 section of the home ministry, refuted the NAB claim.

“The Bureau preserves all rights of registering… We only look into some points whether the NGO men are accused of criminal activities or corruption or if the organisation is involved in any anti-state activities,” he explained.

Ghosh categorically said the process might have been influenced by the political government.

“Earning profit from not-for-profit organisations is a major strength of religion-based political parties and it’s dangerous both for politics and society,” said Golam Arif Tipu, senior lawyer and president of Rajshahi Concerned Citizens’ Committee.

NGO OFFICES FOR SALE!
Months after 1/11 changeover, BCKS issued a directive to close all branches by December 2007, said insiders, adding, all branches were sold in time.

The act violated BCKS constitution, which says opinion of 80 percent members is mandatory for the organisation’s shutdown.

Moreover, NAB and bank experts say by no means an NGO office or its activities can be sold.

“NGOs are aimed at non-profit social welfare jobs and can never be sold,” said former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank (BB) Khondoker Ibrahim Khaled.

He said BCKS banking activities without BB approval and sale of offices were punishable offence.

BCKS central auditor Shah Alam admitted they decided for the closure following allegations of corruption and “we had no clearance from Bangladesh Bank”.

He however denied the sale, adding, “We opted to hand over our activities to willing organisations on condition of returning the deposited money.”

However, The Daily Star has managed a copy of a deed that says BCKS branch at Kahalu upazila in Bogra was sold up to Shekhahar Krishak Kalyan Samity (SKKS) at Tk 2.5 lakh in presence of central officials in August 2007.

Abdul Momen, Kahalu upazila Jamaat president and BCKS adviser, who signed the deed as a witness among others confirmed it.

BCKS insiders say Baneshwar branch was sold to Namajgram Chashi Unnayan Sangstha (NCUS) at Tk 2.2 lakh in November 2007.

Marjina Begum of Jaigirpara of Puthia showed her NCUS passbook, saying she was depositing Tk 10 every week to BCKS since 1997.

“The NGO men changed my passbook showing the earlier savings of Tk 4,450,” she said.

Field workers Rafiqul, Khaled and Aminul said nine of them had proposed to buy Baneshwar office.

But it was sold to their colleague Ferdousi Begum, a relative of the Rajshahi east district Jamaat president, Rafiqul said, adding, “The sale is merely eyewash to hide Jamaat’s bid to retain its control.”

Asked how field workers became so rich to own NGO, Rafiqul said, “It’s good business and we used to earn 5-10 percent commission from each member’s enrolment.”

“BCKS was, in fact, made for creating a source of earning for Jamaat and Shibir workers in rural areas,” Rafiqul noted.

Ferdousi’s version

Ferdousi Begum, NCUS president and a Jamaat supporter who became president from a field worker, told another story.

She joined BCKS as a field worker in 2001 and collected Tk 20 lakh from 350 members till 2006.

“In 2004, I was frightened to see authorities avoiding bank dealings and keeping people’s deposits in personal possession. I also saw field workers misappropriating money and the authorities turning a blind eye to it.

“I thought of leaving the organisation but couldn’t as I had to earn a living. I was trying to get registration of a new NGO.”

Finally, with the help of relatives and local Jamaat leaders, she managed NCUS registration in early 2007 and started her new business from November.

She admitted purchasing BCKS Baneshwar office and explained that she didn’t have to pay for that. “In fact, I had people’s savings with me.”

Elsewhere in Rajshahi region, when Ferdousi saw rampant gobbling up of money, the dreadful rise of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) took place with funding from many so-called Islamist NGOs.

BCKS’ RAJSHAHI EXPEDITION
BCKS had seven branches at Baneshwar, Basupara, Sadar of Puthia, Monigram of Bagha, Godagari, Tanore and Charghat upazilas in Rajshahi.

Besides, it expanded its activities to Boraigram and Gurudaspur in Natore, Kahalu in Bogra, Shibganj and Kansat in Chapainawabganj, Sadar, Atghoria and Ishwardi in Pabna and in Sirajganj of northern region.

Based in Dhaka, BCKS had branches in Narayanganj, Comilla, Netrakona, Kishoreganj, Khulna, Jessore and Kustia.

Each office had around 30,000 members who enrolled giving Tk 40 to Tk 1,000 on monthly payments, or having fixed deposits for 10 years over promises of double return and loans.

Although it was an NGO for farmers, they enrolled teachers, businessmen, and even beggars.

Back in February, all BCKS offices in Rajshahi were closed overnight without any notice or paying off members. As the members approached, Jamaat leaders assured them of payment through NCUS.

But problem occurred in May when NCUS denied paying BCKS members.

During a visit to Baneshwar, no signboard was seen at former BCKS zonal office now taken over by NCUS, although it is mandatory for NGO offices.

BCKS accountant Helaluddin and patron Ahmadullah were in the office. They claimed the office has now unpaid deposit of Tk 56.41 lakh, while they are to get Tk 78.13 lakh given on loans. They denied the office’s sale to NCUS.

On bank dealings, Helaluddin said they don’t need to submit money to banks as they distribute the collected money instantly on loans.

SWINDLED PEOPLE
Mina Begum, a widowed domestic help of Agla village in Puthia, deposited Tk 5,000 in three years to BCKS Baneshwar branch.

“They promised me by Allah of doubling my money. Now they deny giving back even the original amount,” she lamented.

Marzia deposited Tk 11,000 over nine years. “They cheated me and snatched away my deposit book [only evidence of deposit],” said the elderly woman.

A field worker took away her passbook in February saying her term of savings completed and money with profit will be returned. “Still I am after them in vain for my money and passbook.”

Businessman Eklasur Rahman of Shibpur deposited Tk 1.08 lakh, village doctor Naimuddin Tk 50,000 and Hazrat deposited Tk 21,800 with no returns yet.

Hazrat and Ekhlasur went to Puthia police but didn’t file a case following assurance by local Jamaat leaders.

Jamaat leaders at a meeting at local municipal building on June 12 assured that their money would be returned in one month.

“I deposited Tk 1.08 lakh and should get Tk 2.2 lakh, but they pledge to give me Tk 1.4 lakh,” said Ekhlasur.

“They had made me agree to receive Tk 21,000 against my Tk 21,800 deposit and gave me only Tk 4,000 three days after the agreement,” said aggrieved Hazrat.

Hajera, a beggar, expressed anxiety over her Tk 9,000. “What will happen to my money, I have none to lobby for it?”

Day labourer Abdul Karim similarly lost Tk 10,400. Many like him gather in front of the closed offices with hopes but return empty-handed.

BCKS-JAMAAT STATEMENTS
Rajshahi district (eastern) Jamaat Ameer and BCKS adviser Rejaur Rahman and Rajshahi BCKS president and Jamaat member Hafizur Rahman denied the allegations.

“We’ve just closed offices, not fled. We’ll return everyone’s money by turns,” said Hafizur.

He pinned the blame on field workers, who, according to him, fled with people’s money. Asked if he filed complaint against them, Hafizur said, “No, but I will.”

However, he didn’t go to police until yesterday.

“BCKS got Jamaat colour as its officials and employees belong to the party” said Rejaur Rahman.

Shah Alam, a BCKS central auditor, said BCKS head office had nothing to do with financial activities of branches, other than providing suggestions.

Jamaat Publicity Secretary Tasnim Alam denied the party’s link with BCKS.

He claimed Islami Chhatra Shibir is also separate from Jamaat. “Shibir is as separate as BCKS until someone forcibly links those with Jamaat. The organisations just have similar ideologies.”

BCKS president and Jamaat acting ameer Maulana Abul Kalam Muhammad Yousuf repeatedly denied talking on BCKS. “I’m on the move”, “I’m ill” or “I’ll talk later,” he said each time he was contacted.

Puthia Upazila Nirbahi Officer Khaled Mamun Chowdhury said he has yet to receive any complaint. “However, hearing from journalists we started looking into BCKS documents and activities last week.”

Earlier in March, some 30 fraud NGOs swindled about Tk 500 crore taking advantage of lax administration in eight northwestern districts. Those fraud NGO leaders and their abettors have not yet been brought to book.

Compiled By : Habib

The Sector Commanders’ Forum (SCF) and the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) yesterday said they would campaign against political parties forming electoral alliance with anti-liberation war forces.

They reiterated the demand for the trial of war criminals including detained Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Motiur Rahman Nizami and called on the people to boycott anti-liberation-war elements socially and economically.

The announcement came after a view-exchange meeting between the SCF and the CPB, held at the forum’s central office at Banani in the city.

The meeting was the third in a series of discussions on the part of the SCF to talk political parties out of any alliance with war criminals ahead of the next parliamentary elections.

The SCF leaders told the meeting that they, along with other freedom fighters, would oppose the parties siding with the anti-liberation forces and urge people not to vote for them.

Ruling out any alliance with war criminals, the CPB asked the SCF to set up a data bank on war criminals and anti-liberation war elements.

“We consider crimes against humanity as the most heinous of all crimes. The rule of law would not be established in the country until war criminals are brought to justice,” CPB President Manzurul Ahsan Khan, who led a ten-member delegation of his party, told journalists after the meeting.

“We also gave our word to the sector commanders that we’ll try our level best to bring the war criminals to justice,” he said.

The CPB president said though two well-known war criminals — Motiur Rahman Nizami and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury — are behind bars now on corruption charges, the government is yet to try them for war crimes.

Maj Gen (retd) KM Shafiullah, Maj Gen (retd) CR Dutta, Maj Gen (retd) Amin Ahmed Chowdhury, Lt Col (retd) Abu Osman Chowdhury, Maj (retd) Rafiqul Islam, among other SCF leaders, were present at the meeting.

Compiled By : Habib

Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, who enjoyed leniency of the past governments, is now at an isolated cell of Dhaka Central Jail thanks to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) implicating him in the Gatco graft case that eventually led to his arrest on Sunday night.

Although there is enough evidence of his involvement in atrocities during the Liberation War in 1971, he and other local collaborators of the Pakistani occupation forces managed to evade arrest.

Chief of Al-Badr, a force formed with local collaborators of the Pakistani invading army to eliminate intellectuals of Bangladesh, Nizami also got off scot-free even after dozens of former ministers and senior politicians were put behind bars after the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led government assumed power early last year.

He was finally arrested, not for war crimes, after a court issued a warrant of arrest against him following the Gatco charge sheet.

Various documents show he was one of the leading figures among the Jamaat-oriented local collaborators during the independence war.

He was the president of Jamaat’s youth front, Islami Chhatra Sangha (now known as Islami Chhatra Shibir) and carried out a wide range of activities against the Liberation War.

Under his supervision and leadership, the al-Badr (para-militia) force was organised with a scheme of making Bangladesh a nation without her intellectuals. Al-Badr is accused of murders, rapes and arson attacks.

Jamaat, for its involvement in anti-liberation activities, was constitutionally banned after the country’s independence and many Jamaat leaders had to face trial on charges of war crimes.

The trial was, however, blocked and the anti-liberation forces were politically rehabilitated in the wake of the bloody changeover of power in 1975.

With the demands for trial of war criminals and barring anti-liberation forces from contesting polls getting momentum again in recent months, Jamaat leaders started denying their roles in 1971.

Most political parties that have sat with the Election Commission (EC) for talks on electoral reforms opined that Jamaat couldn’t be registered as a parliamentary party in independent Bangladesh.

The Jamaat leaders now claim they didn’t work against independence and there is no war criminal in the country.

But the accounts of Lt Gen AAK Niazi, who led the Pakistani occupation forces as the chief of Eastern Command of the Pakistan Army in 1971, prove the claims false.

Niazi in his book “The Betrayal of East Pakistan” categorically says the Razakar force was formed by the Pakistan government to fight the freedom fighters.

In his book, he says Jamaat-e-Islami, Nizam-I-Islami Party and several factions of Muslim League were known as rightist political parties at the time and the Razakar force was formed with the men recruited from these parties.

Jamaat leaders Golam Azam, Abbas Ali Khan, Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed launched a countrywide campaign urging youths to join Razakar, Al-Badr and the Al-Shams forces to fight the freedom fighters. The then home ministry also used to send reports to West Pakistan about the activities of these forces.

Speeches and writings of Jamaat leaders published in their mouthpiece, the daily Sangram, in 1971 also demonstrate how Jamaat, Razakars, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and peace committees functioned and indulged in killings and atrocities.

Nizami and his party are also accused of patronising Islamist militants that quickly emerged in the country in 2005 through bomb blasts and grenade attacks.

When notorious Bangla Bhai of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was carrying out a reign of terror in the country’s northern region in 2005, Nizami pinned the blame on the media of creating a “fictitious criminal”.

“Police have nothing to do when there is no existence of this so-called Bangla Bhai. Who should they arrest?” Nizami told reporters at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban the same year.

But former BNP lawmaker Abu Hena before his expulsion from the party named former minister Aminul Islam, former industries minister Nizami and Jamaat secretary general and former minister Mojaheed as patrons of Islamist militants.

Majority of those who were arrested on charges of bomb blasts and murders and are now facing trial belong to Jamaat or its student wing Shibir.

Two more murder cases against Nizami, filed with Keraniganj and Pallabi police stations for killing freedom fighters and general public during the Liberation War, are now under investigation.

Compiled By : habib

Representatives of the Islamic community of the country yesterday demanded punishment of Jamaat Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes he committed during the Liberation War.

The demand came at a meeting between a delegation of Islamic leaders and the Sector Commanders Forum (SCF) at the SCF office in Banani.

The delegation, led by former director of Bangladesh Islamic Foundation Maulana Farid Uddin Masud, said war crimes are more heinous than corruption and for that the government should try the war criminals by a special tribunal.

At the meeting they said the rule of law that the government is telling about could be ensured if they try the war criminals.

The religious leaders said that there can be no peace in the country if war criminals are not tried.

SCF chairman and deputy chief of Liberation War Air Vice-Marshall (retd) AK Khandaker, sector commanders Maj Gen (retd) KM Shafiullah, Maj Gen (retd) CR Dutta, Maj Gen (retd) Rafiqul Islam, Lt Col (retd) Abu Osman Chowdhury, former Army Chief and chief coordinator of SCF Lt Gen (retd) Harun-ar-Rashid, among others, were present on behalf of SCF.

Maulana Abdur Rahim, Maulana Mizanur Rahman, Principal of Baridhara Madrasa Maulana Abdul Alim Faridi, Khatib of Rajbari Mosque Mufti Ainul Islam, among others, represented Islamic leaders.

compiled By : Habib

Staff Correspondent

Awami League (AL) yesterday announced it would not enter into any electoral alliance with the anti-Liberation War forces.

The announcement came after a view-exchange meeting with the Sector Commanders’ Forum (SCF), a platform of those who led the war in 11 sectors.

Held at the Forum’s central office at Banani, the meeting was the first in a series of discussions planned to convince political parties not to ally themselves with war criminals.

The war heroes said they along with other freedom fighters would oppose the parties siding with anti-liberation forces and urge people not to vote for them.

In response, AL leaders pledged they would try the war criminals if they come to power through the next general election.

Led by presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, a six-member delegation of the party took part in the talks that lasted about one hour.

“We are committed not to form any electoral alliance with anti-Liberation War forces and not to nominate anyone who had worked against independence,” AL acting General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told journalists after the meeting chaired by Sector Commanders’ Forum President air vice-marshal (retd) AK Khandker.

“We also gave word to the sector commanders that we will try the war criminals,” AL acting general secretary.

Syed Ashraf said they would include the pledges in the party’s election manifesto.

Khandker told reporters, “We wanted them to pledge that they will try the war criminals if they win the next election. We also requested them to include the pledges in their election manifesto.”

He continued, “If any political party forges an alliance with the anti-Liberation War forces, we will work against them in the election.”

Major Gen (retd) KM Safiullah, Major (retd) Rafiqul Islam, Lt Gen (retd) M Harun-Ar-Rashid, Major Gen (retd) Jamil D Ahsan, among other SCF leaders, were present at the meeting.

compiled by : Habib

Published: Tuesday, 13 May, 2008, 05:25 AM Doha Time

Our Correspondent
DHAKA: The election commission (EC) has rejected a plea of 1971 liberation war commanders to bar ‘war criminals’ from contesting the ensuing parliamentary polls.
Chief election commissioner A T M Shamsul Huda said that data against ‘war criminals’ and anti-liberation forces needed to be gathered if they were to be banned from contesting polls.
He made the remark at a meeting with the Sector Commanders’ Forum.
The 1971 independence war veterans, campaigning for war crimes trial, demanded that the EC declare war criminals ineligible for elections.
Huda said the commission would recommend to the government to take the initiative.
“We have been working under limitations as a statutory body. But we cannot do anything since the issue this is political. For this, the government has to come forward. We will place our recommendation with the government,” he said.
Referring to the draft Public Representation Ordinance 2008 which makes convicts unfit for contesting elections, he said, “Anyone convicted by the court will be ineligible to contest elections. Besides, a candidate will lose the seat if he or she furnishes wrong information under the eight-point affidavit