roads and targets. Jamaat and its associate bodies showed path to Pak forces. Jamaat formed auxiliary forces including infamous Al-Badr and Al-Shams. Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), the then student wing of Jamaat, also played active role in wartime crimes. The tribunal said Jamaat founder Abul A’la Maududi delivered speech instigating his workers and others to resist Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. Being head of Al-Badr and ICS, Mir Quasem committed criminal enterprises and caused human harm, physical and mental torture to civilians. The court also regretted that the impunity was given to the war criminals introducing a black chapter of the country’s history. But right has taken the place of might. The law has taken its own course. Consequently, the trial of war crimes accused was initiated. Jamaat and its cohorts committed crimes against humanity in a planned way and deliberately. The party abetted Pakistani occupation forces in this regard. Citing observation of Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha in his judgment rendered in the case of Abdul Quader Molla [Page 42 of the Judgment] that “What has happened in Bangladesh is nothing short of genocide. If what Hitler did in Germany and Poland was an example of racial genocide, if the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh was an example of colonial genocide by the use of armed might, what happened in Bangladesh was no less a case of cultural and political genocide on a scale unknown to history. The whole of Bangladesh became truly a Jallianwala Bagh, hallowed and sanctified by the blood of patriotic martyrs and innocent defenceless people; whose only fault was that they were somewhat different than those who came to rule them from Pakistan. If Bangladesh has survived the onslaught and has been able to confine more than three divisions of Pakistan’s Army to cantonments and towns, it is because the people of Bangladesh, who laid down their lives at the altar of freedom to pay the price of liberty in the coin of blood and sufferings and did not permit the Pakistani troops to clamp colonial rule on the 75 million people of Bangladesh.” SK Sinha in another observation in Quader Molla case was quoted saying “The birth of Bangladesh has been preceded by injustice; false promise and economic and social abuse suspending the session of the elected National Assembly of 1970 sine die followed by the persecution of the legally elected people entitled to form the Government and frame the Constitution, by resorting to commit mass killing, rape and arson by an illegal regime headed by a usurper. These atrocities were perpetrated by the Pakistan’s occupation army with their cohorts, i.e., the Rajakar, Al-Badr, Al-shams and various other local killing squads in 1971. Although the killing of unarmed civilians during late March seemed abrupt and sporadic, it soon became a planned act of violence with operation ‘Search Light’ enforced at midnight, on 25th March, 1971 as part of the central planning and conspiracy hatched at Larkana” “We take into notice the fact of common knowledge which is not even reasonably disputed that during the war of liberation in 1971, Razaker Bahini, Al-Badar Bahini [hereinafter referred to as AB] , Peace Committee, Al-Shams were formed as accessory forces of the Pakistani occupation armed force for providing moral supports, assistance and they substantially contributed to the commission of atrocious activities throughout the country, in furtherance of policy and plan,” the ICT-2 said. The tribunal further said “The perpetrators of the crimes could not be brought to book, and this left a deep scratch on the country’s political awareness and the whole nation. The impunity they enjoyed held back political stability, saw the rise of militancy, and destroyed the nation’s Constitution.” Another observation of the Appellate Division of Bangladesh Supreme Court in the case of Abdul Quader Molla was quoted by the ICT as saying: The mere fact that the perpetrator of an offence is a politician does not mean his trial is to be treated as one for political purpose. If allegations are proved beyond reasonable doubt against a person, it matters not that he is a politician, law does not and can not provide impurity to politicians. It is to be borne in mind that crimes against humanity, whether committed by the Nazis of Germany, or the Japanese or in Yugoslavia or Cambodia or Rwanda, had political connotations any way. Nurturing a political belief is one thing while advancing such beliefs through legally proscribed devices, is quite another. A person can obviously not claim impunity if he advances his political belief by resorting to criminal activities and if he does, he can not allege that his trial is of political nature.” [Justice A.H.M Shamsuddin Chowdhury: Judgment: 17.9.2013 in Criminal Appeal Nos. 24-25 of 2013, Page 751].
Monday, November 3, 2014
Jamaat committed crimes against humanity deliberately: ICT:Daily Sun
roads and targets. Jamaat and its associate bodies showed path to Pak forces. Jamaat formed auxiliary forces including infamous Al-Badr and Al-Shams. Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), the then student wing of Jamaat, also played active role in wartime crimes. The tribunal said Jamaat founder Abul A’la Maududi delivered speech instigating his workers and others to resist Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. Being head of Al-Badr and ICS, Mir Quasem committed criminal enterprises and caused human harm, physical and mental torture to civilians. The court also regretted that the impunity was given to the war criminals introducing a black chapter of the country’s history. But right has taken the place of might. The law has taken its own course. Consequently, the trial of war crimes accused was initiated. Jamaat and its cohorts committed crimes against humanity in a planned way and deliberately. The party abetted Pakistani occupation forces in this regard. Citing observation of Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha in his judgment rendered in the case of Abdul Quader Molla [Page 42 of the Judgment] that “What has happened in Bangladesh is nothing short of genocide. If what Hitler did in Germany and Poland was an example of racial genocide, if the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh was an example of colonial genocide by the use of armed might, what happened in Bangladesh was no less a case of cultural and political genocide on a scale unknown to history. The whole of Bangladesh became truly a Jallianwala Bagh, hallowed and sanctified by the blood of patriotic martyrs and innocent defenceless people; whose only fault was that they were somewhat different than those who came to rule them from Pakistan. If Bangladesh has survived the onslaught and has been able to confine more than three divisions of Pakistan’s Army to cantonments and towns, it is because the people of Bangladesh, who laid down their lives at the altar of freedom to pay the price of liberty in the coin of blood and sufferings and did not permit the Pakistani troops to clamp colonial rule on the 75 million people of Bangladesh.” SK Sinha in another observation in Quader Molla case was quoted saying “The birth of Bangladesh has been preceded by injustice; false promise and economic and social abuse suspending the session of the elected National Assembly of 1970 sine die followed by the persecution of the legally elected people entitled to form the Government and frame the Constitution, by resorting to commit mass killing, rape and arson by an illegal regime headed by a usurper. These atrocities were perpetrated by the Pakistan’s occupation army with their cohorts, i.e., the Rajakar, Al-Badr, Al-shams and various other local killing squads in 1971. Although the killing of unarmed civilians during late March seemed abrupt and sporadic, it soon became a planned act of violence with operation ‘Search Light’ enforced at midnight, on 25th March, 1971 as part of the central planning and conspiracy hatched at Larkana” “We take into notice the fact of common knowledge which is not even reasonably disputed that during the war of liberation in 1971, Razaker Bahini, Al-Badar Bahini [hereinafter referred to as AB] , Peace Committee, Al-Shams were formed as accessory forces of the Pakistani occupation armed force for providing moral supports, assistance and they substantially contributed to the commission of atrocious activities throughout the country, in furtherance of policy and plan,” the ICT-2 said. The tribunal further said “The perpetrators of the crimes could not be brought to book, and this left a deep scratch on the country’s political awareness and the whole nation. The impunity they enjoyed held back political stability, saw the rise of militancy, and destroyed the nation’s Constitution.” Another observation of the Appellate Division of Bangladesh Supreme Court in the case of Abdul Quader Molla was quoted by the ICT as saying: The mere fact that the perpetrator of an offence is a politician does not mean his trial is to be treated as one for political purpose. If allegations are proved beyond reasonable doubt against a person, it matters not that he is a politician, law does not and can not provide impurity to politicians. It is to be borne in mind that crimes against humanity, whether committed by the Nazis of Germany, or the Japanese or in Yugoslavia or Cambodia or Rwanda, had political connotations any way. Nurturing a political belief is one thing while advancing such beliefs through legally proscribed devices, is quite another. A person can obviously not claim impunity if he advances his political belief by resorting to criminal activities and if he does, he can not allege that his trial is of political nature.” [Justice A.H.M Shamsuddin Chowdhury: Judgment: 17.9.2013 in Criminal Appeal Nos. 24-25 of 2013, Page 751].
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment