For the second time in two years, moves are afoot in Bangladesh to ban the Jamaat-e-Islami. Difference between February 2013 and March 2014 is that the earlier plan was initiated by Bangladesh parliament and now the initiative has come from the Bangladesh War Crimes investigators. Both then and now the charge against Jamaat is the same – genocide and other atrocities during the 1971 struggle for independence from the Pakistani yoke.
Already, the Jamaat stands banned from contesting elections. It was kept out of the parliamentary elections held two months ago in January. Forty years after the War of Independence, the Jamaat has paid the price for collaborating with the Pakistani forces when a senior Jamaat leader was executed in December.
About a dozen Jamaat leaders stand convicted for crimes they had allegedly committed that had resulted in the killing of between 300,000 and 500,000 people, many at the hands of Pak army and pro-Pakistan militias led by Jamaat leaders who opposed independence secession of Dhaka from Islamabad on religious grounds. The war buried forever the two –nation theory that had led to the division of British India in 1947.
To what extent the proposed ban would help to checkmate the pro-Pakistani forces which are still active in Bangladesh is a moot point. The ban will have a salutary effect undoubtedly.
On Feb 17, 2013, when Bangladesh Parliament amended the war crimes law, International Crimes Tribunals Act 1973, to allow the prosecution to try and punish the Jamaat-e-Islami and other organisations, it was the response of the Sheik Hasina government to public pressure. Tens of thousands of people had been camping at Dhaka’s Shahbagh for 13 days by then demanding a ban on Jamaat.
The amendment allowed the government, informants and complaints to appeal against a verdict of the war crimes tribunals. Till then, the law allowed only the victim to appeal against his conviction. Apart from Shahbagh protestors, another factor that made the government to act was the killing of an anti-Islamist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haidar earlier that week amidst massive protests against the leaders Jamaat.
What triggered the protests was the sentencing of Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah to life in prison by by a war crimes tribunal on February 5 (2013). People felt, rightly may be that the Mollah deserved death penalty and not the “lenient sentence” that the court had handed down. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the slain blogger’s house in the capital’s Pallabi area, to share the sorrow of the bereaved family. She said Jamaat and its students wing Islami Chhatra Shibir have no right to practice politics in Bangladesh as “they do not believe in democracy but practice politics of terrorism”.
The Law Minister Shafique Ahmed echoed the same views and even spoke of the possibility of banning Jamaat.
“The parties which practice politics killing people including law enforcers and damaging properties of public should not be allowed to run in any democratic country”, he said. Nevertheless he appeared hesitant to go full hog and pushed the ball into the Election Commission’s court, when he remarked, “The Election Commission can take steps on banning the politics of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) if it finds inconsistency between the constitution of the party and the charter of the Republic”.
In a manner of speaking much water has flown into the Padma these past few months. Last August, in a landmark judgment the Bangladesh High Court deregistered the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), thereby banning it from participating in elections. Ban on Jamaat is the next logical step and it is going to be a judicial decision rather than an executive diktat. And this should be welcomed because the decision will insulate Prime Minister Hasina from the charge of arbitrary and vendetta politics.
The Chief War Crimes Investigator Abdul Hannan Khan and his colleagues have done their home work and have handed over their report against Jamaat to the Prosecutors. The report said that Jamaat formed several militia groups as auxiliary forces of the Pakistani troops while the assailants of infamous Al-Badr militia group manned by the then Jamaat’s student wing indulged in annihilating prominent Bengali intelligentsia.
The present incumbent Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami headed the Al-Badr in 1971. The War Crimes Tribunal is set to deliver its verdict against him as the prosecution and defence lawyers have wrapped up their arguments.
“Jamaat and its wings took the decision to act as auxiliary forces of the Pakistani army in committing atrocities in the 1971 war. So the party cannot avoid its responsibilities,” Hannan told reporters in Dhaka and added, “We want total dissolution of the party”.
The prosecutors will take their time to study the report and proceed against the Jamaat in the same War Crimes Tribunal that has convicted the Jamaat leaders. But as and when they open the prosecution, it will be for the first time after the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials that a party will be to be prosecuted for war crimes.
Jamaat has been a long time ally of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Begum Khaleda Zia. It was in fact the mainstay of the BNP led alliance. So much so, the ban on Jamaat has the potential of triggering the advantage for the BNP and it can go around the nation as a victim of Hasina politics. Two caveats will be in order. One the BNP itself is in bad shape, with its leadership embroiled in corruption cases. Two the Jamaat voters are already with the BNP and as such there is very little that can accrue to BNP.
In the short to near term, both BNP and Jamaat may close their ranks as never before and indulge in street protests just to remain relevant and to hog the headlines. In such a scenario, it will be a tough calling for the Dhaka Police, who are already under severe strain.
-yamaaraar