chintito Even After 90 (thukku 30) Years Astounded as the nation is, barring the supporters of the politico-communal guru, there have been reservations to the 90-year (in effect, 30) prison sentence meted out by the International Crimes Tribunal last Monday on mainly two major counts; one, why a death penalty was not pronounced even after Ghulam Azam was found guilty on five charges, and two, why a monetary fine was not tagged with the multiple life imprisonment, as now it will be the taxpayers down to the VAT-paying poorest of consumers who shall have to bear the cost of his long imprisonment. Old age was cited by the court in this month of sanjam for untying the noose from the neck of the jigri dost of the rapists, killers, arsonists, and looters during our 1971 struggle for liberation, but age was no bar when Ghulam Azam, then 49 years old, masterminded crimes against humanity and genocide, and committed war crimes. No Bangalee father of any freedom fighter was shown mercy because he was weak at the knees and had grey hair or was almost blind and hard of hearing. No mother of a muktijoddha was spared the torture and humiliation because she was past her menopausal maturity. The tribunal seemingly failed to heed to an immediate precedent, as in giving out judgement against Delwar Hossain Sayeedi the court had earlier observed that it was punishing a man for his war crimes in 1971 and not judging a moulana in 2013. The convict being punished for conspiracy and planning war crimes, for incitement and complicity in the crimes, and torture and killing of police officer Shiru Miah, his son, and two others on the night of Eid-ul Fitr is financially very well off. His living costs should not be borne by the State or the people. No one living in this country that the Jamaat-e-Islami leader had actively opposed locally and internationally at conception and at birth and after delivery should be expected to pay for his maintenance. Then of course there is a section of the population, politically contrasting to the present government, who ostensibly unaware about their responsibility as citizens of this country, would like to believe that their elderly partner ally would be freed should there be a different shade of political opinion ruling the country after the forthcoming general election. Let us remind ourselves that the next government is not the last government. Even the staunchest enemy of Awami League would not agree that the present party in power would not return to govern in the next 30 years. It is the right time to repeat here a few historical facts. Since our collective 1947 independence from British rule till their brutal military machine cracked down on our innocent unarmed people in 1971 Pakistan rulers offered at best a step-brotherly treatment to us the then East Pakistanis. We were the majority of the population and were pouring more than the West Pakistanis into the Pak national exchequer through 50-70% of the total export earnings but were offered the lesser share; them 70% to our 30. Fewer Bangalees were employed in the Pakistan military and civil services. Bangalee were not financed to build large industries. Electricity, water, and telecommunications were mere alms at their mercy. We had much fewer doctors and hospital beds, and poorer health facilities. Our education system was steadily crippled while theirs was making progress in leaps and bounds. We did not get a single Pakistani (our) military helicopter to manage relief operations after the November 1970 Bhola cyclone, the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded (185km/hr), and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern times (5 lakh dead). With $3.6 billion US Aid for flood management, the West Pakistanis took $2.7 billion to construct their Tarbela dam while we got $0.9 billion for flood control. We were supposed to be one country. They frivolously labelled us Bangalees as anti-Islamic. But we East Pakistanis were by far the more conservative. As for example, Karachi newspapers then advertised their night clubs in daily newspapers. We were proud of Dhaka as the city of masjids. Against this background in 1966 came Sheikh Mujib-led Awami League’s six-point programme, which demanded (for our very survival) autonomy for East Pakistan, and which West Pakistan perceived as separatism. The Pak junta invented the Agartala conspiracy case 1968 and put Sheikh Mujib and thirty-four others on trial. Bangalees arose in a mass movement in 1969 propelled by the January 11-point demand of the Student Action Committee, which included release of all arrested in the Agartala case. Amid vehement public demand, on 22 February the case was withdrawn. Freed Mujib was pronounced ‘Bangabandhu’ at a reception at today’s Suhrawardhy Udyan the day after. A month later the tyrannical government of despot Ayub Khan fell. The first ever Pakistan general elections were held in 1970 under General Yahya Khan whose publicised personal life was hardly Islamic. Considered one of the most fair and clean elections in the history of Pakistan, Awami League won 160 seats (all in East Pakistan) and was the single largest party in the 300-seat Pakistan parliament. But, Sheikh Mujib was not being invited to form the central Pakistan government. Yahya hobnobbed with West Pakistan’s majority leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto; his People’s Party won 81 seats in the West. Jamaat-e-Islami won 4 (four) seats. In the simultaneous provincial elections, Awami League won 288 of the 300 seats in the East Pakistan Assembly. After months of delay and surreptitiously amassing West Pakistani troops and hardware in the East, the extremely ruthless Pakistan Army unleashed on the black night of 25 March 1971 the most cowardly and heinous attack to annihilate the Bangalee nation; one of their lame pretexts was that Islam was in danger, khattra. Does not that sound familiar even today? Bangabandhu declared independence on 26 March before he was arrested by Pakistani forces. Ghulam Azam and his cohorts nakedly backed the ruthless and inhumane Pakistan army and regime against the Bangalees. Newspapers and documents, local and international, carry reports of their meetings and commitment to bring down their wrath on the freedom-loving Bangalees, deprived by the Pakistanis for 24 years. They gave birth to razakars, al-badr, al-shams, and the shanti (peace) committees to kill, rape, loot and destroy Bangalees. One crore victims of those atrocities took refuge in subhuman Indian camps. Bangalees took up arms, organised the freedom fighters (declared by Ghulam Azam as ‘enemy force’) with regular Bangalee armed forces personnel and civilians. The nine-month long war of liberation ensued with training and operation camps based in India along the Bangladesh border. When the Bangalee nation’s victory was imminent in mid-December with auxiliary support from Indian Army and Air Force, as their borders were threatened, the anti-liberation forces, patronised by Ghulam Azam and others, took to kidnapping, blindfolding, torturing, killing and throwing the bodies of some of our greatest sons, the intellectuals, in a flooded brickfield. They left their Bangalee Muslim so-called ‘brothers’ unwashed, unburied, and themselves unrepentant. Scores of mass graves have been unearthed all over the country. Many remain missing till today. And all the time Ghulam Azam and the likes of him had lent total unabashed support to the mindless killing and maiming, raping and looting. It is in relation to those nefarious activities then that Ghulam Azam and others like him are being found guilty in the on-going trials through witnesses, testimony and evidences, and after being provided with full defence protocol inclusive of defence lawyers. Even today they do not for one moment regret their 1971 action, apology is a far cry. We note with considerable consolation that some Pakistanis, although not through government channels, have apologised for the atrocious deeds of their countrymen. Even after 30 years, the tears of those Bangalees who lost their near and dear ones to the maniac lust of the killers shall not dry. Even after 30 years the eerie scream of the women being violated shall render our skies red. Even after 30 years, this nation may not get the justice it so painfully awaits.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 06:03:01 +0000
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