Dhaka, Nov 11 (IANS) A forum of freedom fighters has asked the caretaker government that punishing “war criminals” – those who actively opposed the liberation of Bangladesh – is as important as its current drive against corruption.
“We demand punishment of war criminals, who committed crimes against humanity (during the liberation war)… because if these criminals go unpunished, there would be recurrence of such crimes in the country,” said Lt. Gen. (Retd) Harun-ur-Rashid, convenor of the Sector Commanders’ Forum.
The forum is a platform of sector commanders of the 1971 liberation war, who conducted guerrilla warfare against the Pakistan Army and eventually fought alongside the Indian forces under a joint India-Bangladesh command, to defeat the Pakistani forces.
Rashid told media Saturday that the National Law Committee, law wing of the forum, was preparing to file cases against those who had escaped because of weak laws.
They were earlier jailed, tried and punished under the Collaborators’ Act soon after the independence. But the regime changes following a coup against founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975 facilitated their acquittal and return to the political life.
Jamaat-e-Islami, the principal political party accused of harbouring war criminals, has rejected the accusation saying that there were only 192 people held and tried. As of now there are “no war criminals,” Jamaat leader Abdul Kader Mollah had said earlier this week.
However, Rashid cited records and urged the government of Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed to initiate legal actions against the war criminals, and said their trial was “as important as the ongoing crackdown on corruption,” the Daily Star said Sunday.
Ahmed’s government has since February this year detained over 200,000 people, including some 200 high profile politicians, officials and businessmen, on charges of corruption.
“If we fail to try them this time, we would never be able to bring them to book. The freedom fighters, who are witnesses to their war crimes, are now above 60, and we may not find them among us for long,” Rashid said.