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Published : 04 Sep 2024, 12:59 AM
Abdullahil Aman Azmi, son of the former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam, has labelled Bangladesh's national anthem as "contrary to the existence of independence" and demanded its change.
He also said the constitution of 1972 is not "legitimate" and called for the drafting of a new constitution.
Speaking virtually at a press conference at the National Press Club on Tuesday, the former brigadier general also raised questions about the number of martyrs in the 1971 Liberation War.
He described the torture inflicted on him during the eight years he was "forcibly disappeared."
Aman Azmi said, "In 1905, Rabindranath [Tagore] wrote 'Amar Sonar Bangla, Ami Tomay Bhalobashi' to thwart the partition of Bengal. This national anthem unites the two Bengals. Do we want the two Bengals to unite? Do we want to keep an independent Bangladesh, or become a part of West Bengal in India?
"We want an independent Bangladesh and we want to maintain it. This national anthem is against the existence of our independent Bangladesh. I strongly demand that a new national anthem be created."
Regarding the 1972 constitution, the dismissed military officer said: "In 1970, the Awami League took a mandate under the Pakistani constitution to form a state of Pakistan, not to draft an independent constitution. In 1971, Pakistan imposed a war on us, and we fought and became independent…
"However, they did not take any mandate from the people to draft a new constitution. Therefore, in my view, this constitution is not legitimate. A committee should be formed to draft a new constitution and abolish the current one."
Dismissed from the Bangladesh Army in 2009, Aman Azmi was criticised on social media in 2015 for calling the information about 3 million martyrs in the Liberation War 'fictional.'
He reiterated at the press conference, "Sheikh Mujib said 3 million instead of 300,000, and that became 3 million. They have deceived the people by using their emotions without any survey.
"I appeal to the government to conduct a survey to find out whether it is actually 3 million or 30 million. To my knowledge, it is 286,000. They have turned 300,000 into 3 million. There is still time, let the nation know the true history. Do not let our new generation grow up on lies. Conduct a real survey and take action."
Aman Azmi said he was abducted on Aug 22, 2016, and tortured in the following years.
"They disappeared me for two reasons: my ancestral identity and because I am anti-India. I was just sitting down to eat with my mother when the government's thugs— I call them thugs because it's what thugs do, taking people without a lawsuit or warrant—came and took me away.
Aman Azmi revealed he did not see daylight for eight years.
"For the past eight years, while imprisoned, I did not see the sky or the sun. Sometimes they would blindfold me so tightly it felt like my eyeballs would burst. I wore handcuffs so long that I developed sores on my wrists. For eight years, I was in a dark room, unable to see anything of the world."
Azmi returned home two days after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government on Aug 5.
He said, "Upon returning, I learned that they had also mistreated my wife severely. They had attempted to take her away as well. The young maid in our house was also assaulted by them. The manager who looks after our home, they threw him down and jumped on his chest.
"Our doorman was tortured. They ransacked our home. They also smashed the CCTV cameras on the road next to our house. In the houses around us that had CCTV cameras, they went in and took the recorders. They created an atmosphere of terror in the entire area as they took me away."
Aman Azmi expressed his gratitude to the Anti-discrimination Student Movement activists for liberating him from the 'brutal life.'
