Thursday, September 13, 2012
Atrocities in
1971
Ghulam Azam
also liable
Says
Sultana Kamal at war crimes tribunal
Staff
Correspondent
Leading rights
activist Sultana Kamal yesterday said Ghulam Azam, chief of the auxiliary
forces of the Pakistani occupation army in 1971, was organisationally
responsible for the activities of the collaborators.
Prosecution
witness Sultana Kamal, who also fought for the independence of Bangladesh, told
this to International Crimes Tribunal-1 during her cross-examination in the
case against Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Ghulam Azam.
In her deposition
on September 10, she said the collaborators had set fire [to houses], looted
and killed many people. They had captured and supplied women to army camps and
bunkers.
Yesterday, she
said she had no documents on when or where Ghulam Azam had given Al-Badr the
permission to kill intellectuals or whether he had approved the killing.
“However, he
[Ghulam Azam] being the chief of such organisations (Peace Committee, Razakar,
Al-Badr and Al-Shams), it was not possible for the activists to commit any
activities without his consent. Besides, there is no evidence of him taking any
punitive measures against the offenders. Therefore, responsibilities of such
activities organisationally fall on him,” said Sultana Kamal.
She further said
the Peace Committee, Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams could not be held as
Jamaat's wings. Nonetheless, Jamaat had played pivotal role in forming the
auxiliary forces.
In reply to
another question from the defence, she said she did not have clear idea on
whether the chief and member secretary of the central Peace Committee were the
members of Jamaat.
The witness said
she had seen Ghulam Azam leading Peace Committee procession and playing vital
role in forming and making plans for the auxiliary forces in the newspapers
published during the Liberation War.
Ghulam Azam had
called upon to form the Peace Committee during the Liberation War and it was
published in the Daily Purbadesh and the Daily Azad on April 5 and April 7 in
1971, she said, adding that these records had been submitted to the
investigation agency.
In response to
another question, Sultana said several cases on intellectual killings had been
filed after the Liberation war, during the tenure of Bangabandhu government,
but she did not know if the number of the cases was 50.
Defence counsel
Mizanul then asked the witness whether she knew that three cases had been filed
for the killing of Shahidullah Kaysar, Dr Alim Chowdhury and Munir Chowdhury.
Sultana replied
in the affirmative.
The defence
counsel then asked whether Ghulam Azam was made accused in the cases filed for
killing intellectuals.
He was not made
accused as a planner or for any other involvements in the cases filed for
killing intellectuals, replied the witness.
“Each case was
filed for killing one intellectual. And my testimony today is not for any
individual killing but for the role of Ghulam Azam in mass killing during the
Liberation War in 1971,” she said.
She then said two
cases had been filed against Ghulam Azam in 1972 for different incidents in
1971.
“Ghulam Azam was
accused in those cases for his association,” Sultana said.
She also said she
knew that documents regarding killing intellectuals had been found in the house
of a former minister of Pakistan. She, however, could not name the minister.
The defence
counsel told the witness that Ghulam Azam had not been in Bangladesh [then East
Pakistan] between November 22, 1971 and December 16 of that year.
“I know he met
Yahya Khan on December 1 which suggests he might not be in the country during
the period,” said the witness.
Sultana Kamal's
cross-examination will resume today.
Ghulam Azam was
present in the court yesterday. He is facing five charges of crimes against
humanity allegedly committed during the Liberation War.
Testimony of
Sayedee's witness
Abul Hossain, the
fourth witness for war crimes accused Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee,
yesterday told Tribunal-1 that he and the accused had been neighbours in
Jessore until mid-April in 1971.
He said he along
with his family then had moved to India while Sayedee went to one of his Pir's
(spiritual leader) house at Mohiron village under Bagherpara Police Station in
Jessore.
The defence
witness said he know nothing about Sayedee after that.
Abul said Sayedee
had lived at New Town in Jessore until April 3 or 4 in 1971. Afterwards he
along with Sayedee and two other neighbours had taken shelter in a house at
Dhanghata village in Jessore and stayed there for seven to eight days.
Following the
deposition, prosecution Syed Haidar Ali cross-examined the defence witness.
During the
cross-examination, the witness said he had previously given testimony in many
cases, but this was his first deposition in such case.
The prosecution
later made a suggestion that Abul was a professional witness and had come to
testify for the accused for money.
“It is not true,”
replied Abul.
The case
proceedings were adjourned until today.
Sayedee was
produced before the tribunal yesterday. The Jamaat leader is facing 20 specific
charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1971's
Liberation War.
Kamaruzzaman case
The International
Crimes Tribunal-2 yesterday adjourned the case proceeding against
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman until September 17, as the
prosecution could not produce its witness.
The three-member
tribunal headed by its Chairman Justice ATM Fazle Kabir re-fixed the date after
Prosecutor AKM Saiful Islam said they could not produce witnesses due to their
illness.
“You have given
names of three witnesses [to the defence]. Are all of them ill?” asked Justice
Fazle Kabir.
“Two of them are
ill and father of another witness is also ill. So they couldn't be produced,”
replied Saiful Islam.
Six prosecution
witnesses have already given their testimonies in the case against the Jamaat
assistant secretary general.
On June 4, the
tribunal has indicted Kamaruzzaman in seven charges of crimes against humanity
allegedly committed during the Liberation War.
Your
Right To Know
Monday, May 14, 2012
Anti-Bangladesh
before & after '71
Ghulam Azam speaking at a Jamaat programme during Liberation
War.
Julfikar Ali Manik and Rizanuzzaman Laskar
Ghulam Azam's crusade
to thwart the emergence of Bangladesh had continued even after the
nine-month-long blood-spattered Liberation War in 1971, as he tried to revive
East Pakistan and spread propaganda against Bangladesh for several years.
Just when Pakistan was
on the verge of losing the war, Ghulam Azam went to Pakistan on November 22,
1971. He formed East Pakistan Retrieval Committee in Pakistan and campaigned
until 1973 to build public opinion against Bangladesh and its recognition in
the Islamic world.
While reading out the
charges yesterday, Justice Md Nizamul Huq, chairman of the International Crimes
Tribunal-1, gave a brief profile of accused Ghulam Azam.
He said Ghulam Azam
went to London in 1973 and set up an office of East Pakistan Retrieval
Committee there. He published a weekly, Shonar Bangla, in London, which was
used as a propaganda tool against Bangladesh.
Bangladesh government
cancelled his citizenship on April 18, 1973.
Ghulam Azam later
visited Saudi Arabia in March, 1975. He met King Faisal and told him that
Hindus have captured East Pakistan, the holy Quran has been burnt, mosques have
been destroyed and converted into temples, and Muslims were killed.
He collected funds
from the Middle East for rebuilding mosques and madrasas.
After the
assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ghulam Azam returned to
Bangladesh on August 11, 1978 with a Pakistani passport. He got back his
citizenship and rejoined his post as the ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami. He served in
the post until Motiur Rahman Nizami was elected ameer.
Ghulam Azam was born
on November 7, 1922. He studied in a madrasa first and then obtained master's
degree from Dhaka University in 1950. He was a teacher of Rangpur Carmichael
College between 1950 and 1955.
He joined
Jamaat-e-Islami in 1954 and served as its secretary from 1957 to 1960. He
became the ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1969. During the Liberation War, Jamaat
and Islami Chhatra Sangha under his leadership opposed the Liberation War.
He played a pivotal
role in forming Shanti (peace) Committee, Razakar, Al Badr, Al Shams
(collaborator forces). He was an elected member of the national assembly from
Tangail in the sham elections of 1971, Justice Nizamul Huq said.
The Daily Star went
through historic documents and is able to shed more light on Ghulam Azam's
records.
According to records
on the Liberation War, Ghulam Azam began playing an active role in helping the
Pakistani occupation forces even as the nation joined the armed struggle to
free Bangladesh soon after the launch of a massacre by the Pakistani military
on the night of March 25, 1971.
He was ameer of the
East Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami before the Liberation War. As the ameer, he
campaigned across Bangladesh and even in Pakistan (then West Pakistan) in an
attempt to foil the liberation movement.
"Pakistan is the
house of Islam for the world's Muslims. Therefore, Jamaat activists don't
justify staying alive if Pakistan disintegrates," said Ghulam Azam in a
speech to mobilise his party men and followers against Bangladesh and help the
occupation forces. (Source: Jamaat's mouthpiece the daily Sangram, 1971).
Ghulam Azam is one of
the front men who actively helped the Pakistani forces' attempts to foil the
birth of Bangladesh. He was hyperactive against the Liberation War and became a
symbol of war crimes in Bangladesh.
He met Pakistani
General Tikka Khan, who was known as the "Butcher of Baluchistan", 10
days after the war started and earned the same title "butcher" as an
architect of the genocide launched on the night of March 25, 1971 in Dhaka.
During the
nine-month-long bloody war, Ghulam Azam and his party Jamaat-e-Islami, its
student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha (later renamed Islami Chhatra Shibir) played
a key role along with their other political partners to foil Bangladesh's
independence struggle.
According to
newspapers, including the daily Sangram, and books and documents on 1971,
Jamaat and its student wing played a key role in forming the Peace Committees
and some other collaborator forces like Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams.
Throughout the
nine-month war, Jamaat, its student wing and the collaborator forces actively
helped the Pakistani military in mass killing, rape and atrocities.
The Pakistani forces
and their Bangladeshi collaborators committed genocide and war crimes that left
three million people dead and around a quarter million women violated, besides
the planned elimination of some of the best of Bengali brains on December 14,
1971.
War records show that
Jamaat formed Razakar and Al-Badr forces to counter the freedom fighters.
Razakar force was established by former secretary general of Jamaat Moulana
Abul Kalam Mohammad Yousuf, and Al Badr included the Islami Chhatra Sangha
activists.
Anticipating defeat,
the occupation forces and their collaborators--mostly leaders of Jamaat and its
student front--picked up leading Bengali intellectuals and professionals on
December 14 and killed them en masse with a view to intellectually crippling
the emerging independent nation.
Though Ghulam Azam was
the brain behind Jamaat's anti-liberation efforts, incumbent Jamaat Ameer
Motiur Rahman Nizami, president of Islami Chhatra Sangha in 1971, played a
vital role in collaborating with the Pakistani junta in committing genocide.
Nizami, who is also
behind bars on charges of war crimes, had said, "Every one of us should
assume the role of a Muslim soldier of an Islamic state and through cooperation
with the oppressed and by winning their confidence we must kill those who are
hatching a conspiracy against Pakistan and Islam." (Daily Sangram quoted
Nizami on September 15, 1971)
Ghulam Azam and his
party men and anti-liberation elements used to call the freedom fighters
"miscreants", "Indian agents", "malaun" (an
offensive word used against the Hindus), and "infiltrators".
On April 8, 1971,
Ghulam Azam issued a joint statement with other Jamaat leaders. A book
containing an account of the killers and collaborators titled “Genocide '71”
quotes from that statement: "India is interfering in the internal affairs
of East Pakistan. Wherever patriotic Pakistanis see Indian agents or
anti-Pakistan elements and infiltrators, they will destroy them."
Genocide '71 also
reads: "On June 18, on arriving at Lahore airport, Ghulam Azam spoke to
journalists, stating that, in order to further improve the conditions in East
Pakistan, he was going to provide some additional advice to the president
[General Yahya Khan].
"However, he
refused to elaborate any further on what sort of advice he was going to give.
Regarding the situation in East Pakistan, he said: 'The miscreants are still
engaged in destructive activities. Their main aim is to create terror and
turbulence. These miscreants are being directed by Naxalites and left-wing
forces.'"
On June 19, before
Tikka Khan left for Dhaka, Ghulam Azam met then Pakistan president Yahya Khan.
After his meeting with Yahya, he addressed a press conference in Lahore. He
told journalists, "The miscreants are still active in East Pakistan.
People must be provided with arms to destroy them."
Addressing Jamaat
workers prior to the press conference, Ghulam Azam said, "In order to
prevent the disintegration of Pakistan, the armed forces had to be
deployed." He further noted, "The recent tumult in East Pakistan is
10 times greater than the 1857 Revolution in Bengal." Speaking at a press
conference in Peshawar on August 26, he said, "The armed forces have saved
us from the treachery of our enemies and from the evil designs of India. The
people of East Pakistan are lending full support to the armed forces in
destroying miscreants and infiltrators."
On November 23, Yahya
Khan declared a state of national emergency.
Ghulam Azam welcomed
this announcement. He told the press in Lahore, "The best way to defend
ourselves is striking at our enemies." He said in order to restore peace
in East Pakistan, each patriotic citizen, each member of the Peace Committees,
Razakar, Al-Badr, and Al-Shams must be armed with modern automatic weapons.
At a meeting in
Rawalpindi on November 29, he said, "There is no example in the history of
a nation at war surviving without retaliation. Aggression is the best form of
defence."
On December 3, he in
Karachi said, "An East Pakistani should be in charge of the foreign office
because it is only an East Pakistani who can cope with the Bangladesh tamasha
[the Bangladesh farce]."
Immediately after
victory on December 16, 1971, Ghulam Azam and many others like him fled to
Pakistan and returned only after the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members in 1975.
After victory the
first issues of newspapers of the new nation carried the government's decision
to ban five communal parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, on December 18 with
immediate effect. The banned parties were given the green light to resume
politics during the regime of late president Ziaur Rahman.
Genocide '71 said soon
after Ghulam Azam with a few of his followers went to Saudi Arabia, an
advertisement, in the name of a fake organisation, appeared in several Middle
Eastern papers. The ad proclaimed, "mosques are being burnt in East
Pakistan, Hindus are killing Muslims and destroying their properties." On
the plea that Islam had to be saved, the ad appealed for contributions.
It also said Ghulam
Azam, in order to collect funds and to continue his campaign against
Bangladesh, visited several countries of the region, including Dubai, Abu
Dhabi, Kuwait, and Beirut. After completing his tour of these areas, he left
for London in April, 1973.
Even though he came to
Dhaka on a three-month visa during the rule of president Ziaur Rahman in 1978,
he never left Bangladesh. He became Jamaat's undeclared ameer taking over from
alleged war criminal late Abbas Ali Khan who was the acting ameer.
In the early 90's,
Ghulam Azam was officially declared ameer of Jamaat, while Shaheed Janani
Jahanara Imam launched a unique mass movement demanding trial of war criminals.
She held an unprecedented People's Court as a symbolic trial of Ghulam Azam
where thousands of people gathered and the court pronounced a verdict to the
effect that offences committed by him during the Liberation War deserve capital
punishment.
Ghulam Azam's
citizenship issue came into focus when he came to Bangladesh as a Pakistani
national.
In 1991, the BNP
formed government with support from Jamaat and in 1992 Ghulam Azam filed a case
with the High Court to get Bangladeshi citizenship. The government of the day
arrested him and put him in jail. However, after Ghulam Azam acquired
Bangladeshi citizenship through a court order in 1994, the government released
him from prison.
In 1998, BNP and
Jamaat formed the four-party alliance and Ghulam Azam appeared at a grand
public meeting with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Ghulam Azam left the
party's top post in 2000 and was succeeded by Nizami.
Ghulam Azam stayed out
of focus since then but he is back into the spotlight after yesterday's court
order.
File Photo 
