Ghulam Azam had complicity in ‘71 genocide: Prosecutor

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Dhaka, Feb 25 (UNB) - A prosecutor on Monday told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 that accused Ghulam Azam, then ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami in occupied Bangladesh, had complicity in crimes against humanity, including genocide as he supported the 1971 March 25 midnight massacre in Dhaka and elsewhere.
While making arguments for the sixth day in the Ghulam Azam case, prosecutor Sultan Mahmud Simon said the defeated political party in 1970 election, Ghulam Azam within 10 days backed the horrifying acts carried out by the Pakistan troops on March 25 at a meeting with then Governor Lt Gen Tikka Khan and assured them of further all-out cooperation in such acts.

Supporting or legitimiining any criminal act committed amounts to complicity in such crime, argued the prosecutor.

Prosecutor Simon said it was known to all both at home and abroad that members of the Peace Committee (Pakistan Collaborator), Razakar, Al Badr and Al Shams, the vigilante groups of Jamaat-e-Islami, created a reign of terror across the country during the Liberation War in 1971. Those groups were vested on the occupation army as auxiliary forces for perpetrated crimes against humanity, including killing, rape arson and loot, he added.

Referring to a book written by Maj Gen Rao Forman Ali, the prosecutor told the tribunal that Ghulam Azam as a leader of Jamaat-e-Islam had connections with the Junta authorities long before.

As a result, the Jamaat leader had access to meet the top army generals who matter in the warfare, including Pakistan President Gen Yahyia Khan, and shared his mindset with them which appeared a clear-cut complicity in crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, said prosecutor Simon.   

Referring to a speech at a party meeting in Lahore in June 1971, the prosecutor said Ghulam Azam endorsed the army massacre in besieged Bangladesh saying there was no alternative to army interference to save Pakistan.  Ghulam Azam also eulogized the dreadful role of occupation army which clearly indicated the complicity in crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.

The arguments remain inconclusive.