Author: IANS
Publication: Irish Sun
Date: January 25, 2008
URL: http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/321514/cs/1/
The chief of Bangladesh's largest Islamist
party Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), his political aides and three Pakistani nationals
have been accused of killing 345 people in April 1971, when resistance to
the Pakistan Army's crackdown in the then East Pakistan was building up.
Mohammad Amir Hossain Mollah, a freedom fighter,
Thursday filed a murder charge against JeI's ameer (chief) Motiur Rahman Nizami,
secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, five of their party men and
three non-Bangladeshis for the massacre during the liberation war.
JeI was a coalition partner and Nizami and
Mujahid were ministers in the last elected government (2001-06) of Khaleda
Zia.
In his case filed with the chief metropolitan
magistrate's court in Dhaka, Mollah stated that the Jamaat men carried out
the killings in the capital's Mirpur area. The victims included 21 of his
relatives, one colleague, 43 residents of Mirpur and 280 others from different
areas of the country.
The killings took place on two days, April
24 and Dec 18, 1971.
By the latter date, Bangladesh had been liberated
but Islamist militia like Al Shams and Al Badr carried out the mass killings
soon after the Pakistani forces surrendered.
According to the complainant, some 100 to
150 freedom fighters had surrounded the camps in Mirpur and Mohammadpur areas
where the Islamic militants were holed up.
Nizami, Mojaheed, Quader and others fired
at them, leaving a freedom fighter Abdus Sattar dead, the complaint said.
On Dec 7, 2007, a similar case was filed against
Nizami, Mojaheed and seven other JeI men at a Dhaka court for killing two
freedom fighters during the liberation war and the court ordered investigations
by the Keraniganj police station, The Daily Star reported.
In Thursday's case, Metropolitan Magistrate
Mohammad Emran Hossain Chowdhury recorded the complainant's statement and
directed the officer-in-charge (OC) of Pallabi police station to register
the murder case as a first information report (FIR).
The complainant cited 15 persons, including
himself and the victims' parents and relatives as witnesses in the case.
The Islamists, who were declared outlawed
after the independence in 1971, gained entry into the political mainstream
during the tenures of military rulers Ziaur Rahman and H.M. Ershad.
Political analysts said the cases against
the Islamists are part of the efforts to get them de-recognised by the election
commission.
The current interim government has said all
'war criminal' of 1971 should be tried and punished, but added that this was
'not a priority task'.
