Jamaat is Innocent!!

Jamaat's no war criminal claim trashed

Dhaka, Oct 26 (bdnews24.com) – Campaigners against war crimes and communalism Friday rubbished Jamaat-e-Islami's claim that there were no war criminals and anti-liberation forces in the country.

They said such claims amounted to sedition since the constitution clearly spelled out provisions for trying war criminal.

The leaders of Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee and South Asian People's Conference against Fundamentalism and Communalism in a joint statement accused Mujahid of giving "false, motivated and provocative statement dishonouring the history and spirit of the independence war".

The statement demanded a special tribunal to try war criminals and a ban on politics based on religion.

Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mujahid made the claim Thursday at a meeting with the Election Commission. In a post-meeting briefing, Mujahid repeated his statement.

The Awami League and its allies and various social organisations recently asked the Election Commission through the media not to allow any war criminal or communal group in the next elections.

The AL is expected to formally raise the issue before the commission during a meeting with the top polls office slated for Nov 4.

"Apart from war crime Mujahid committed treason" by giving such a statement, the statement said.

"We think Mujahid's statement was not only audacious but it also amounted to a vile attack on the history and spirit of the liberation war and the existence of Bangladesh," it continued.

"It is well documented that 30 lakh people were killed and more than two lakh women raped during the independence war. The leaders and workers of Jamaat-e-Islami, Muslim League and Nezame Islami collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971."

"The proofs of their war crimes are recorded in the pages of the Dainik Sangram, the mouthpiece of Jamaat-e-Islami," the statement said.

"Alongside collaborating with the Pakistani forces in genocide and torture, Jamaat also killed freedom fighters and intellectuals by forming Razakar, Al Badr and Al Shams as part of the party initiative."

The signatories to the statement included Prof Kabir Chowdhury, women rights leader Hena Das, Justice KM Sobhan, Advocate Gaziul Haque, Kalim Sharafi, Prof Ajoy Roy, Major Gen (retd) CR Dutta, journalist Kamal Lohani, Prof Hasan Azizul Huq, Qayyum Chowdhury, Syed Shamsul Huq, Rabiul Hussain, Ferdousi Priyobhasini and Abul Barak Alvi.