Calling the BNP 'a party of Razakars', Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy has wondered whether its founder Gen Ziaur Rahman, who commanded a sector of the freedom fighters, had any belief in the spirit of Bangladesh's independence.
Published : 14 Nov 2014, 11:43 PM
"Yes, Razakars will have to be tried because they are war criminals. But I would like to ask, could their supporters have any faith in the spirit of freedom?" said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son.
"I would question can the man who brought these war criminals back to the country be a freedom fighter. No way,” he said.
Joy was speaking at a discussion organised by Suchinta Foundation at a hotel in capital Dhaka on Friday.
Jamaat-e-Islami, which led the collaborators of Pakistan Army during the 1971 Liberation War, was banned from politics after Bangladesh's birth. But in 1978, then President Gen Ziaur Rahman rehabilitated Jamaat back into politics.
Bangladesh's war crimes tribunals have already convicted six top leaders of Jamaat and are still trying several others. The Awami League introduced the International Crimes Tribunal in 2009 after coming to power.
Joy on Friday asked the audience at the discussion, "Aren't those who do politics along with Razakars are Razakars as well? Yes. The truth is BNP is a party of Razakars."
Joy went on, "They (BNP) cannot take back one thing - who brought the Razakars back? Who brought them back to independent Bangladesh? It was Ziaur Rahman."
"They can never deny that," he said firmly.
The architect of Bangladesh's independence, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members were killed by a group of rogue army officers on Aug 15 in 1975.
It was a time when those acted against Bangladesh's independence were being tried under the Collaborators Act. But 11,000 of those anti-independence supporters, arrested under the Act, were freed during Zia's regime.
The trials of the suspected war criminals started at the special courts in 2010.
Joy said, "The war criminals are being tried after all these years. They will be tried and their punishments will be carried out until the Awami League's term ends."
And for that to happen, 'the party which believes in Bangladesh' must be kept in power, he added.
Explaining the long wait for the war crimes trials, Bangabandhu’s grandson brought up the 1970 general election in which the Awami League secured all seats in Parliament except two.
"Most of the Bengalees had voted for the Awami League in that election, but not all. Some people did not vote for the Awami League. They gave their vote to the Pakistani political party.
"Who were they? We should know that. If we don't pay our attention to that, and don’t identify them, we won't understand why it took 43 years to try the war criminals."
He said, "These people who cast their vote for the Pakistani party were rich and had business ties with Pakistan. They wanted to be in Pakistan for personal benefits and that's why they didn’t want independence."
"The BNP which was founded by a dictator also joined them - for power, for money, for themselves, not for the country."
Trials
Joy, who also advises the prime minister on ICT affairs, said there was no scope to question the government's position on trying the people who committed crimes against humanity in 1971.
"Some of us who do believe in independence can sometimes be led by misinformation. A group of people smells conspiracy when our court sentences Sayedee (senior Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee) to life in prison. They say plot is on to save Jamaat."
"If that was the case, would (Jamaat leader Abdul) Quader Molla have been hanged only days before the elections (of Jan 5) despite calls from John Kerry and Ban Ki-moon? Who would have had the courage?"
Joy emphasised, "An independent court is needed first for good governance, which will deliver verdict in line with the law and independently. What can the government do about the verdict of a court? Nothing."
“We can only claim that a mistake was made in the verdict, but we cannot say that there was a conspiracy behind it,” he added.