Families of genocide victims hold Ziaur Rahman responsible for Jamaat’s rise

A group of academics, families of victims of Pakistan army orchestrated genocide, rights activists, researchers and students held Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) founder Ziaur Rahman and his successor Khaleda Zia responsible behind the rise of Jamaat-e-Islami, a political party consists of self-confessed war criminals.

They observed that a global backing for Pakistan including US and China in 1971 amd reluctance of such global powers are major barriers behind the international recognisition of the genocide, reads a press release.  

Following the gruesome assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with most of his family members, Gen Ziaur Rahman rose to become the country's first military ruler who, the speakers said, offered an olive branch for then isolated war criminal led party Jamaat.   

"It was Gen Zia who embraced the killer of my father Dr Aleem Chowdhury, then an prominent ophthalmologist, who was dragged down from his home, mutilated and gunned down by local group of collaborators aided by the Pakistan Army during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh," said his daughter Dr Nuzhat Chowdhury at the seminar.

"We believe a known pro Pakistan aide Maulana Abdul Mannan was the mastermind behind the killing of my father while the only fault they thought to justify that killing for his role in offering treatment to wounded freedom fighters while killers of country's founding fathers were also embraced by Gen Zia," according to Prof Nuzhar.

She said, "Gen Ziaur Rahman embraced that killer Mr Mannan and he was even promoted to the rank of a deputy minister by Zia. A brazen testimony of how war criminals were promoted… so what can be the goal except wiping out the ideals and values of the Liberation War that prompted Gen Zia."

A mutilated, bullet ridden, disfigured and decomposed body Dr Aleem was identified in Rayer Bazar mass graveyard on 18 December 1971 like hundreds of such brightest minds killed and dumped by Pak army in nexus with local collaborators on days before their public surrender, a grisly scheme now countrymen observed as Martyred Intellectual Day on 14 December.

Tarana Halim, prominent cultural personality and member of AL's central executive committee, said "Under Begum Zia, that unholy alliance between BNP and Jamaat grew further. Two self-confessed and most notorious war criminals— Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid — were even promoted to ministers during the last reign of BNP between 2001 and 2006.

"Even when voted out of power, BNP's top leader Khaleda echoed similar tune with Jamaat on the war crimes trial. A brazen defence has been put up by Khaleda and her top aides in defence of Jamaat to stop the war crimes trial while overwhelming majority even took to the street in support of the trial and that alliance is still very much intact," added Tarana. 

A number of Rajshahi University professors also took part in the discussion arranged under the banner of One Bangladesh, a platform of professionals, at the Rajshahi University campus. They echoed a similar view and urged international powers to "correct the decade old wounds through international recognisition of the genocide".