Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said her government will execute all war crimes verdicts in its current term.
Published : 03 Nov 2014, 04:56 PM
The announcement came on Monday, hours after Bangladesh's top appeals court upheld the death sentence of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mohammad Kamaruzzaman for war crimes.
In an unmistakable dig at her arch political rival BNP chief Khaleda Zia for giving war criminals cabinet berths, she said, "You made war criminals ministers, we put them on trial.”
"I vow to try all [suspected] war criminals. God willing, I'll purge this soil of its stigma by executing the [war crimes] verdicts," she told an Awami League rally in Dhaka.
The ruling party organised the programme at the Suhrawardy Udyan to mark the Jail Killings Day.
Hasina's government initiated the war crimes trials in 2010 by setting up a special tribunal.
Most of those convicted or under trial are connected with the Jamaat, which is being investigated for committing alleged war crimes during the Liberation War.
Jamaat claims the tribunals "fall short" of international standards and that the ruling party was using the trials to eliminate its top brass, an allegation the government rejects.
Two convicts -- Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed – had served as ministers in the BNP-Jamaat coalition's 2001-6 Cabinet.
War criminal BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury was an advisor to then prime minister Khaleda. He was a minister under the military dictator HM Ershad.
Prime Minister Hasina said her government was going ahead with the trials braving "numerous threats".
Jamaat-e-Islami’s Pakistan wing has threatened her, saying the continuation of the trials would lead to her downfall.
Jamaat has been enforcing countrywide general strikes after each of its leaders' conviction. It called a three-day strike last week -- Thursday, Sunday and Monday – to protest against its chief Nizami's conviction.
On Sunday, it called another shutdown for Thursday after its key financier Mir Quasem Ali was sentenced to death.
The party, whose registration with the Election Commission has been revoked by the court, announced another shutdown for Wednesday after the top court upheld Kamaruzzaman's death verdict.
Hasina wondered why the party called for shutdowns now.
"Didn't it cross their mind [that they would be tried for war crimes] when they raped our mothers and sisters, committed genocide and sided with the Pakistani army?"
Referring to the BNP-Jamaat coalition, she said the Jamaat had become a "double-edged sword" for Khaleda.
"She can neither speak up for them nor can she speak against them," Hasina observed.
Although, initially, Khaleda dubbed the war crimes trials "a farce", she recently clarified that her party's relations with Jamaat was a mere "electoral understanding".
The BNP has been silent on the conviction of top Jamaat leaders and the death of top war criminal Ghulam Azam, who had led the Jamaat during the Liberation War.
Hasina said the trials finally brought justice to the martyrs' families.
"Those who lost their loved ones...will at least have the solace that they witnessed trials of war criminals on this soil in their lifetime.
"They have got justice," said the prime minister.