TUI RAZAKAR: তুই রাজাকার

Compiled by : Habib

Saturday, 15 March 2008

Staff Correspondent

The Sector Commanders Forum Friday condemned the government’s scrapping of a March 15 convention on war crimes and said it would simply benefit war criminals.

Former Air Force chief AK Khandker, who heads the forum, however vowed to continue their movement to demand trials of the war criminals.

At a news conference at the National Press Club, Khandker said they would soon announce a fresh programme for their cause. The forum, a platform of the commanders who led 11 sectors during the 1971 Liberation War, had planned the convention for Saturday at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre but the government Thursday did not give permission for security reasons.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police said it feared “rioting” if the convention went on. Khandker, deputy chief of command during the Liberation War, said the DMP’s move was “illogical”. “The government decision has benefited the party, which has no right to do politics in Bangladesh,” he said, pointing to the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. He said the forum had recently held such convention at six divisional headquarters to collect support for their movement but there had been no chaos.

“Now we fail to understand why the government smells chaos in the national convention,” Khandker said. The forum applied to authorities on Jan 3 for holding the convention but the cancellation decision came only 36 hours before the programme, he said. “Many freedom fighters now living abroad came to join the convention. We are ashamed of this cancellation decision,” he said.

Former army chief and sector commander KM Shafiullah said they were shocked by the decision. Mir Shawkat Ali, another sector commander, warned that the government should know the difference between its friends and foes.

The forum announced observance of one minute “blackout” at one minute past midnight on March 25 demanding trial of the war criminals. Liberation War sector commanders retired major general KM Shafiullah, retired major general CR Dutta, retired lieutenant colonel Abu Osman Chowdhury and the forum coordinator retired lieutenant general Harun-or-Rashid and journalist Fayez Ahmed also attended the news briefing along with scores of freedom fighters.

Many independent researchers and fact-finding groups say leaders and activists of Jamaat were involved in war crimes and collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971. They say Jamaat’s decision to oppose the Liberation War was a conscious political decision.

Source : Independent Bangladesh the commercial times