Those who handed national flag to the war criminals, will be tried: HPM Sheikh Hasina

The Awami League president made the announcement at a discussion organised by the ruling party to mark Martyred Intellectuals Day on Wednesday.

"Those who had handed them the flag of independence are also equally responsible for their crimes. They will also be tried like the war criminals on the soil of Bangladesh," she said.

Sheikh Hasina noted that the war crimes trial in Bangladesh will continue like that of World War II in Germany.

"No strategy or conspiracy will save them. Because this is the path of justice. Truth and justice always prevail," the prime minister said.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, which opposed Bangladesh's independence and sided with the Pakistani army during Liberation War, was allowed to do politics in independent Bangladesh after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

The rehabilitation took place during the tenure of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, Bangladesh's first military ruler.

Two war criminal Jamaat leaders - Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid - became ministers when Gen Zia's wife Khaleda Zia, who is leading the BNP, was the prime minister from 2001 to 2006.

Another war criminal, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, was Khaleda's parliamentary affairs adviser at that time.

The much-awaited war crimes trial started after the Awami League came to power in 2009. Nizami, Mujahid, Chowdhury and three other war criminals have been hanged so far.

In the verdict sentencing Nizami to death, the International Crimes Tribunal had observed that giving a ministerial berth to Nizami was a “slap on the faces of millions of martyrs”.

The prime minister, speaking at the discussion on Wednesday, said again that those who harboured the war criminals, restored their political right and handed them the flag 'stained with blood of millions of martyrs' were equally responsible for the crimes.

"They will have to be tried. I think now is the time when the people should raise their voice.”

Sensing the humiliating defeat, the Pakistani force picked up teachers, doctors, artists, writers, journalists and many other famed Bengalis from their homes and killed them in a planned manner.

Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams forces collaborated with the Pakistani occupation directly in the mass killings of the intellectuals with an aim to hinder the development of the new nation.

Eye specialist Dr AFM Alim Chowdhury's eyes were gouged out while cardiologist Fazle Rabbee's heart was cut out.

"The Pakistani forces would have never been able to know the alleys of Bangladesh had some disgraceful people not been born among us," she said.

She said the Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakar showed the Pakistani forces the street to the homes of the intellectuals and masterminded their harrowing tortures.

She recalled the lessons she had taken as a student from some of the martyred Dhaka University teachers. They included Munier Chowdhury, Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury and Anwar Pasha.

Prime minister also recalled that Shah Azizur Rahman, who gave speech favouring Pakistan at the United Nations during the Liberation War, was made prime minister during Zia's rule.

"Section 12 of the Constitution was repealed to give the war criminals the chance to do politics at that time. And Section 38 was partly amended to give them back the voting right," she said.

Columnist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, martyred intellectual Dr Alim Chowdhury's daughter Dr Nuzhat Chowdhury, martyred intellectual Sirajuddin Hossain's son Shaheen Reza Noor, among others, spoke at the programme.

Photo: Focus Bangla