The War Crimes Tribunal has issued arrest warrants for the 4 senior Jamaat leaders already in government custody. The charges: committing genocide and crimes against humanity and peace during the 1971 War of Liberation. The leaders wanted in connection with the crimes: none other than Motiur Rahman Nizami, the Jamaat-e-Islam chief and his Secretary General, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and two lower ranking assistant secretaries general. Nizami and Mujahid are widely known to have been leaders in the Al Badr brigade, the militia that has been thought squarely responsible of murder and slaughter of a large number of young and promising intellectuals.
This is a very important move. These are the first charges brought against persons and citizens of Bangladesh for crimes committed under the International Crimes Tribunal Act of 1973. This act brought about a legal procedure to prosecute war criminal but was never used to in court. Decades of maneuvering and indemnity saw to that.
The sitting Awami League government returned to power in 2008 in no small measure from its promise to use just that law to prosecute those held responsible for collaborating with the (West) Pakistani military to commit murder and rape, destroy lives, unleash crashing waves of public and private torment.
Mr. Golam Arif Tipu, the lead prosecutor in the trial, claimed it a red-letter day, reports the Indian, Daily, the Statesman:
“It appeared that the four are crucially needed to be kept in confinement as the special investigation agency has already gathered evidence against the four. They were found to be involved in gruesome crimes like genocide, killing, torture, arson and forcing exodus during the Liberation War,” , claimed Mr. Tipu.
The arrests are a signal achievement. They come tantalizing close to pointing an accusing finger at Pakistan’s political and military establishment. Consider that exiled former President Pervez Musharraf was an Army officer in 1971, employed no doubt to fight India, but surely convinced that he was on the right side of genocide.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
