Golam Azam, Nizami, Mojahid, SQC, 32 others summoned: Haphazard filing of cases may disturb govt move: Minister

A court yesterday summoned former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Golam Azam, incumbent chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mujahid, BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury MP and 32 others to appear before it and face alleged charges of war crimes. 
The court of Dhaka ninth additional district judge Iftekhar Ahmed also asked them to explain by July 20, why they would not be declared war criminals and disqualified from contesting any election in Bangladesh for the alleged crimes they had committed during Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.
The court order came following a civil suit, filed by three lawyers on November 13, a month before the general elections last year, for declaring the accused war criminals and ineligible to contest elections in Bangladesh.
The chief election commissioner, Election Commission secretary and Dhaka deputy commissioner were also made defendants in the case.
The court also issued the directives to Maulana A K M Yusuf, Maulana Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, Abdul Kader Molla, Meer Kashem Ali, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Muhammad Kamaruzzman, Khaja Khairuddin (dead), Md Abdul Alim, Mohammad Ali, A S M Solaiman (dead), Fazlul Quader Chowdhury (dead), Julmat Ali Khan, Kazi Kader (dead), Shah Mohammad Azizur Rahman (dead), A B M Khaled Majumder, A N S Yusuf, A Q A Safiul Islam, Abdul Matin, Advocate Mohammad Ainuddin (dead), Goalm Sarwar, Maulana Abdus Sobhan, Captain (retired) Abdul Based, Abdul Matin Bhuiyan, Md Abdur Rahman, Obaidullah Majumder, Engineer Abdul Jabber, Barrister Korban Ali (dead), Ashraf Hossain, Advocate Ansar Ali, Md Kaiser, Abdul Majid Talukder and A K M Mosharraf Hossain.
Of the accused, SQ Chowdhury is the parliamentary affairs adviser to opposition leader and BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia. Most of others are top brass of Bangladesh Jamaate Islami.
Advocate Md Liton Mia, Advocate Md. Shafayat Hossain and Rajib Ahmed filed the case.
The court yesterday held a hearing on whether the case should be pursued before taking it into cognisance.
The litigants in the petition said the 36 were ‘war criminals’ according to International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973, the relevant law on 1949 Geneva Convention and the Representation of People Order (Amendment) 2008.
They said the 36 were identified as war criminals after the war though they were yet to be brought to justice.
Golam Azam, Nizami, Mujahid were among those who had formed militia outfits such Al Badr, Al Shams and Rajakar, and helped the Pakistan Army in the killing of around 30 lakh people and rape of nearly 3 lakh women, the suit said.
The complaint added they had also killed scores of intellectuals on Dec 14, 1971, two days before the final victory.
Rana, the defence counsel, said all the accused would be sent summons but some of them who have died would be excluded from the petition.
Meanwhile, the government apparently has become embarrassed with the court order as well as huge number of indiscriminate cases being filed across the country on the eve of forming tribunals to try alleged war criminals.
Haphazard cases may disturb the government’s move to bring the war criminals to justice and help the criminals to escape, state minister for law Kamrul Islam said yesterday.
“We’ve taken a final decision to try the war criminals and the process of forming a tribunal, appointing investigating agency and lawyers in line with International Crime (Tribunal) Act 1973 has been finalised,” he told at his secretariat office.
“Cases should not be filed against the war criminals sporadically, when the government is at the final stage to initiate the trial,” Kamrul suggested.
The minister said the court orders will have no bearings on the trial process and that there was no need to file cases in court as “the government’s decision to hold the trial will be considered as the first information report.”
The investigating agency will place war crime proofs before court. Such a “huge task” required time, he said.

Courtesy of The New Nation