Waiting eagerly to see Jamaat banned in Bangladesh

Jamaat-e-Islami was the mastermind among the three Islamist parties which in 1971 collaborated with the Pakistani occupation army and formed Peace Committees in April to resist the freedom fighters. In June, Jamaat with its members launched razakar force and later its student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha (now Islami Chhatra Shibir) formed militia group al-Badr. Moreover, al-Shams and Mujaheed force were also formed under the leadership of Ghulam Azam, then the Jamaat chief who in July 15 this year was sentenced to 90 years in jail for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It’s, however, the most unexpected outcome of the International Crimes Tribunal holding trial of the local collaborators since its inception in March 2010, after the collaborators act was repealed in 1975 and the traitors had been released. People are waiting to see apart from individuals responsible for war crimes, Jamaat and the other criminal organisations of 1971 have to be brought to the book, and banned forever in this independent Bangladesh. Reconciliation with a defeated force in an independent country is not acceptable.

It’s mysterious that the government is delaying in beginning the trial of at least Jamaat first even though the tribunal in its judgements have been mentioning Jamaat as a criminal organisation for its role in 1971. Though millions of people have support against Jamaat, the government is just dillydallying.

Similar reluctance is also seen in the case of Jamaat’s registration as a political party. Despite having several basic objection about the party’s charter, the Election Commission in November 2008 registered it as a political party. Even though the EC later in the four years asked it several times to revise the charter, the party did not, until December 2012. And this time, the 49th revision, Jamaat changed drastically almost all of its eight objectionable clauses – turned into a democratic one instead of an Islamist party.

The government also delayed in issuing directives to officials concerned to revive a 2009 petition that sought the High Court’s order in declaring Jamaat illegal for the mismatches. The court started hearing on the petition early this year. A judgement on this issue is due today.

Moreover, the government has also been lenient towards Jamaat as it didn’t cancel the right to form and operate religion-based political party while amending the constitution in 2011 though the High Court asked it to.

But I, my friends or the pro-liberation people aren’t free to hope that this criminal organisation would be banned and its leaders tried for every offence. It shouldn’t be given amnesty anymore. The human beings should have some basic ethical matters to be followed, like not accepting traitors at home.

Ban Jamaat-Shibir! Uproot fundamentalism! Ban religion-based politics! Build a secular and pro-development Bangladesh!