‘New Bangladesh in the making’

Bangladesh was headed for a new beginning, said litterateur Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal on Thursday, while reacting to the verdict of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee.

“I think it was right for Sayedee to be hanged for all the dangerous crimes he committed… It has happened… A new Bangladesh is in the making… Now we don’t have to move forward with disgrace and shame,” he said.

Sayedee was popularly known as ‘Deilla Razakar’ in Pirozpur for his crimes during the Liberation War. Eight of the 20 charges against him in ICT were proven beyond doubt, the verdict said.

“Looking at the hopelessness, anger of the people after Quader Molla’s verdict, I was fearing like many others that their (Jamaat-Shibir) frenzy would hinder Sayedee’s verdict,” said Iqbal.

“But, the new generation revived the people through Ganajagaran Mancha…The verdict will be welcomed by whole of Banlgadesh… Now there shouldn’t be any confusion about verdicts.”

Iqbal, son of a 1971 martyr, recalled Sayedee’s role during 1971. “His crimes were so serious that there’s no such example in the world. The new generation didn’t experience 1971 Liberation War, we did. They (the new generation) are seeing through our eyes how dangerous the activities of the razakars were.”

Iqbal’s father, Foyzur Rahman Ahmed, a police officer and writer, was killed by Pakistani army during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.

The fifth allegation against Sayedee reads that the then Pirojpur Deputy Magistrate Saif Mizanur Rahman had formed ‘Sarbadaliya Sangram Parishad’ to encourage the people to take part in the Liberation War. After being informed of it, Sayedee announced to arrest him. On May 5, Sayedee and his associate Mannaf, a member of the Peace Committee, along with some Pakistani troops went by a military vehicle to Pirojpur Hospital where Mizanur Rahman was hiding.

They arrested a pro-liberation organiser Rahman, Sub-Divisional Police Officer Foyzur Rahman Ahmed (father of writers Jafar Iqbal and Humayun Ahmed) and Acting Sub-Divisional Officer Abdur Razzak and brought them to the bank of Baleshwar River. The three civil officials were gunned down there and the bodies were thrown into the river. Sayedee was present at the spot. He is charged with abetting the abduction and murder.

However, the allegations that Sayedee directly took part in the abduction and killing of the three civil officials could not be proved.

In this regard, Iqbal said: “I think that the judges didn’t pass the verdict emotionally. Deilla Razakar wasn’t sowell known on that time like now. Even I didn’t know him.”

This was the third verdict delivered by the International Crimes Tribunal since the trial of major war crimes suspects, mostly belonging to Jamaat, began three years ago in 2010 in line with the ruling Awami League's election pledge.

Meanwhile, ICT-2 delivered two judgments sentencing Abul Kalam Azad, an expelled Rokan of Jamaat, to death in absentia on Jan 21 and Abdul Quader Molla, an Assistant Secretary General of the Islamist party, to life term imprisonment on Feb 5.