Bobby Hajjaj accuses 14 Party Alliance, AL at tribunal

He petitions for the Awami League and other parties involved in the July, August ‘massacre’ to be banned for 10 years

Bobby Hajjaj, the chairman of the Nationalist Democratic Movement, has petitioned the International Crimes Tribunal demanding the Awami League and the 14-Party Alliance be punished for ‘crimes against humanity’.

He filed the accusations with the tribunal’s prosecution branch on Wednesday.

The older son of businessman Moosa Bin Shamsher, Bobby was at one point a special advisor to Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad. Now he is the chairman of his own party.

In the petition, Bobby says that on Jul 19, the Awami League-led 14 Party Alliance imposed a curfew amid the Anti-discrimination Student Movement. The members of the alliance decided to open fire on sight during the curfew.

“After this, they opened fire and committed a massacre. By making this decision, the Awami League, Workers Party, JaSaD, and the 14 Party Alliance committed crimes against humanity,” it said.

The petition calls for the ICT to investigate the charges of ‘ordering a massacre’ against the Awami League, JaSaD (Inu), Bangladesh Workers Party (Menon), Tarikat Federation, Jatiya Party-JP, Socialist Party and other 14-Party members and to try them ‘as parties’.

“We hope we will get justice from the International Crimes Tribunal,” Bobby said.

BM Sultan Mahmud, prosecutor at the ICT, said that the petition had called on the Awami League and other parties in the 14 Party Alliance to be banned for a period of 10 years.