Published : 04 May 2017, 09:47 PM
Updated : 05 Aug 2022, 07:19 PM
The proposal put forward by MP Fazilatun Nasa Bappy was adopted unanimously on Thursday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina present in parliament.
The endorsement of the proposal by members of parliament means that a law should be designed to punish the guilty of defaming and distorting the history of genocide and the Liberation War, MP Bappy said.
Nine parliament members called for corrections, all suggesting the addition of ‘immediately’ or ‘on an urgent basis’ to the proposal.
Law Minister Anisul Huq accepted the proposal after the discussions ended, but the corrections were not adopted.
“Good news is that the draft of the new law is ready. It will be presented to the cabinet immediately and will be passed in the current parliament session.”
“The government has declared Mar 25 Genocide Day. What we need now is a law for punishing manipulators of genocide and Liberation War history. There are 17 countries in the world that have Holocaust denial law,” said MP Bappy.
Last year, Parliament passed a proposal presented by MP Bappy for confiscating assets of the nation’s father’s killers and convicted war criminals.
In 2014, Tarique Rahman, BNP leader and son of the party’s chief Khaleda Zia, came under massive criticism for a series of controversial comments on the nation’s father and history during meetings in London.
The next year, his mother drew flak when she raised doubts about the number of people martyred in Bangladesh’s war with Pakistan.
Khaleda’s comments were followed by a series of similar comments by her party leaders who spoke controversially on the war martyrs, the nation’s father and martyred intellectuals.
The issue led to demands from different quarters for a law for punishing manipulators of history.
“Khaleda Zia wants to wipe away our history after coming to power. She gets hurt like Pakistanis when war criminals are hanged. She tries to raise doubts about the number of our martyrs. This is a horrible crime,” said MP Bappy.
