Govt considers trying Jamaat: Hanif

Ruling Awami League leader Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif has said the government is contemplating a law in the next Parliament session to try the Jamaat-e-Islami for alleged 1971 war crimes.

Talking to reporters at Kushtia on Thursday, he said: “I believe the country will get rid of Razakars if Jamaat is tried for perpetrating war crimes. But the law has to be amended.”

“The spirit of the Liberation War will be upheld. We’ll provide solace to the souls of three million (Liberation War) martyrs,” he added.

Hanif alleged that former president Ziaur Rahman and then his wife Khaleda Zia rehabilitated and established the Jamaat, which backed Pakistan during the Liberation War, following the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

“Ziaur Rahman freed the war criminals from jails, stopped their trials, gave (former Jamaat chief) nationality to Ghulam Azam and made Shah Azizur Rahman the prime minister and notorious Razakar Abdul Alim a minister,” he said.

Hanif went on to add: “Later the BNP gave these Razakars the national flags. (The party) disgraced the spirit of the Liberation War and the souls of the three million martyrs by giving Motiur Rahman Nizami and (Ali Ahsan Mohammad) Mujaheed Cabinet berths.”

Referring to the ongoing trials of suspected war criminals, he said: “The government is thinking of enacting a law in the next Parliament session to put this political party on trial on charges of war crimes.”

The prosecution of the International Crimes Tribunal has recommended banning the Jamaat and its war-time affiliates on seven counts of war crimes, including genocide, in 1971.