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From: Syed_Aslam3 <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com>
To: Khobor <khabor@yahoogroups.com>; notun Bangladesh <notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com>; chottala@yahoogroups.com; Sonar Bangladesh <SonarBangladesh@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 2:46 PM
Subject: [notun_bangladesh] Ghulam Azam was involved in Mar 25 Night Crackdown Plan ....
From: Syed_Aslam3 <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com>
To: Khobor <khabor@yahoogroups.com>; notun Bangladesh <notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com>; chottala@yahoogroups.com; Sonar Bangladesh <SonarBangladesh@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 2:46 PM
Subject: [notun_bangladesh] Ghulam Azam was involved in Mar 25 Night Crackdown Plan ....
Former Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Ghulam Azam took part in the planning of Operation Search Light, the crackdown by the Pakistan army on the unarmed people of Bangladesh on the black night of March 25, 1971, investigators have found.
Thousands of innocent Bangalees -- many of them teachers and students of Dhaka University -- were massacred as the military launched a genocide which continued all through the nine months of the Liberation War.
On condition of anonymity, a member of the prosecution team, which is dealing with war crimes cases, told The Daily Star yesterday about this findings of the investigation agency concerned.
Azam met the then East Pakistan governor and martial law administrator, Gen Tikka Khan, the infamous "Butcher of Beluchistan", at Dhaka cantonment a few days after the March 25 carnage.
And he told the Pakistani general that Operation Search Light had been successful, said the prosecutor, citing the probe body report on the ex-Jamaat chief.
The prosecutors yesterday informed the International Crimes Tribunal that they had received five final reports from investigators on war crimes allegations against Azam and the four Jamaat leaders now in detention.
The three-member tribunal, headed by its Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq, then directed the prosecution to submit formal charges against the four -- Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla -- by December 5.
The prosecution, however, did not go into details of the probe body's findings regarding the war crimes of Azam or the others.
The quartet was produced before the tribunal in the morning as per its August 1 order.
Prosecutor Syed Haider Ali told the tribunal that at least one month was needed to scrutinise the investigation reports for preparing formal charges against the accused.
Also yesterday, the tribunal rejected the bail petitions filed by the Jamaat leaders in connection with the war crimes charges, and fixed December 5 for the next hearing.
At one stage of the day's proceedings, Prosecutor Zead-Al-Malum informed the tribunal of the report on Azam.
The prosecutors will place a formal charge against the former Jamaat ameer after two weeks and also pray to the tribunal to issue a warrant of arrest against him, prosecution sources said.
The probe report says Azam, ameer of then East Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami, was responsible for genocide, murder, atrocities, war crimes and other crimes against humanity all over the country in 1971, said the prosecutor while speaking to The Daily Star yesterday.
As a civilian superior commander, Azam was involved in the crimes committed by anti-liberation outfits under the banners of Razakar Bahini, Al Badr, Al Shams and Peace Committees.
He led the Razakar Bahini that occupied a part of Mirpur in Dhaka till January 31, 1972 although the Pakistan occupation forces had surrendered to the allied forces on December 16, 1971.
The area was freed after the razakars were routed in deadly fighting.
Azam was responsible for several million Hindus' being forced to convert to Islam during the war. The court considers the act as a crime against humanity, the prosecutor said.
Offences perpetrated by Nizami, president of All Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangha in 1971, cover imprisonment; abduction; confinement; torture; rape; genocide in Pabna and other regions, and abetment of and attempt or conspiracy to perform such acts.
Mojaheed committed similar crimes in greater Faridpur; Kamaruzzaman, then chief coordinator of Al Badr, in greater Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Tangail and Sherpur areas while Abdul Quader Molla, a leader of then Jamaat's student front Islami Chhatra Sangha, in Mirpur and Keraniganj area.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=208936
Conspirators: Golam Azam, Tikka Khan & Nurul Amin.
=============================================
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Evidence enough to arrest G Azam
Say war crimes trial backers
Former Jamaat ameer Ghulam Azam will be arrested on charge of committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, 1971, an investigator said yesterday.
Mohammad Abdul Hannan Khan, the senior-most member of the war crimes probe body, said this adding they made some progress in investigation into allegations against Azam.
Hannan, however, did not mention any timeframe for the arrest.
He was talking to The Daily Star after a meeting with war crimes prosecutors and leaders of a forum called Antorjatik Aporadh Tribunal Dhaka Sohayak Mancha (platform for supporting the tribunal).
Shahriar Kabir, convener of the forum, who was present at the meeting, told the media that statements of Ghulam Azam published in the daily Sangram in 1971, are enough to try and punish Ghulam Azam for crimes against humanity.
During the war, Azam in an issue of the Sangram, a Jamaat mouthpiece, said, "Pakistan is the house of Islam for the world Muslims. Therefore, Jamaat activists don't justify living if Pakistan is disintegrated."
He also expressed concern over not arresting Ghulam Azam, who has become the country's anti-liberation and fundamentalist symbol-figure.
Ghulam Azam met Tikka Khan, the Pakistani general known as butcher of Beluchistan and architect of the March 25, 1971 genocide, 10 days after the War of Independence started.
Directly opposing the birth of the nation, Azam led the formation of Shanti Bahini to thwart Mukti Bahini fighting for the country's independence.
Ghulam Azam apparently has distanced himself from party politics since 2001.
Shahriar Kabir also observed war crimes trial would not be completed even in next three years if sufficient manpower and logistics are not provided to prosecutors and investigators.
He also said "There is also a lack of coordination among the probe body, prosecutors and the government," he said.
Echoing Kabir's remarks, Chief Prosecutor Ghulam Arieff Tipoo said if the prosecutors and investigators are not given enough support, the work will proceed slowly.
The meeting was held at Bailey Road residence of Tipoo in the city yesterday.
Some other leaders of the forum, Justice Mohammad Ghulam Rabbani, Justice Syed Amirul Islam, Prof Muntasir Mamun and barrister Tureen Afroz, among others, were present at the meeting.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=172110