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Role of pro-Pakistan Jamaat in focus as Bangladesh heads to polls on Dec 30
By
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
, ET Bureau|
Dec 24, 2018, 08.10 AM IST
NEW DELHI: Bangladesh observed 47th anniversary of ‘Martyred Intellectuals Day’ on December 14 by paying tribute to the intellectuals and professionals who were massacred on this day in 1971 by the Pakistani occupation forces with the help of local collaborators,mainly Jamaat, reminding horrors ahead of December 30 elections.
On December 14, 1971 as the liberation war was nearing its end and victory of Bangladesh became imminent, leading Bengali intellectuals and professionals including professors, doctors, engineers, journalists, writers, artists, teachers and other eminent personalities were picked up from their houses and blindfolded before being taken to torture cells where they were executed en masse in brush fire at Rayerbazar and Mirpur.
The horrors of December 14, 1971 are the main focus of the ongoing trial of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bangladesh. Leading Jamaat figures now stand accused of masterminding brutal killing of intellectuals that occurred only two days before the Pakistani occupation forces surrendered on December 16, 1971.
December 14 is a day that marks not only one of the darkest chapters in the history of Bangladesh but the world’s as well. It is hard to think of a similar incident anywhere in the world where intellectuals were systematically rounded up and methodically annihilated to crush the backbone of a nation. In recent times a few among the known collaborators have been tried and executed, but the people of the country are yet to see any signs of guilt or remorse in them.
In fact intellectuals and professionals were killed throughout nine months of the liberation war, but the largest number of execution of intellectuals in one daytook place on December 14. This is why the day is observed as ‘Martyred Intellectuals Day’ in Bangladesh.
The recently executed Jamaat leaders including its chief Matiur Rahman Nizami who was then President of Jamaat student front Islami Chhatra Sangha andAli Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid, then chief of East Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangha along with their Razakar/al-Badr/al Shams cohorts committed the most horrendous crimes and murders to crush the liberation war. The motive was to intellectually cripple the yet-to-be born Bengali nation and deprive it of able leadership.
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid was second in command of the infamous al Badr, an auxiliary force of the Pak army. It was he who orchestrated massacre of the front line intellectuals and professionals, hours from the independence in 1971.
According to a report published in the vernacular daily Purbodesh of January 9, 1972 Ashrafuzzaman Khan, a Jamaat leader and Commander of al Badr militia and killer of intellectuals of Bangladesh, fled the country in 1972. He went to Pakistan and worked for Radio Pakistan for quite some time before taking shelter in US. After the liberation, Ashrafuzzaman's personal diary was recovered from his residence. Two pages of his diary registered names and residential addresses of some teachers and medical officers of Dhaka University who were killed by him. He has been tried in absentia and sentenced to death for the war crimes committed in 1971. Now he is living inNew York for more than three decades and presently he heads the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
Another al Badr commander who played a key role in killing of intellectuals in Dhaka in 1971 was Chaudhury Mueen Uddin who is now Vice Chairman of East London Mosque and presently heads the British charity ‘Muslim Aid’ which has an annualbudget of over 20 million Pound. Mueen Uddin, who was a journalist of the daily Purbodesh in Dhaka, was at the forefront of anti-liberation activities perpetrating atrocities on the freedom fighters. He rounded up, tortured and killed many prominent citizens to deprive the soon-to-be-born state of its intellectual and cultural elite.
Killing of intellectuals constituted the most shameful chapter of the genocide that took place during the Bangladesh liberation war. The chief architect of these gruesome killings was Maj Gen Rao Farman Ali, a senior high profile Pak Army officer who was Military Adviser to the Governor of East Pakistan in 1971. After the liberation of Bangladesh, a diary of Maj Gen Rao Farman Ali containing list of the intellectuals who were killed on December 14, 1971 was discovered, indicating that it was he who blueprinted the massacre of intellectuals in 1971.
Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/67224067.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
By
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
, ET Bureau|
Dec 24, 2018, 08.10 AM IST
NEW DELHI: Bangladesh observed 47th anniversary of ‘Martyred Intellectuals Day’ on December 14 by paying tribute to the intellectuals and professionals who were massacred on this day in 1971 by the Pakistani occupation forces with the help of local collaborators,mainly Jamaat, reminding horrors ahead of December 30 elections.
On December 14, 1971 as the liberation war was nearing its end and victory of Bangladesh became imminent, leading Bengali intellectuals and professionals including professors, doctors, engineers, journalists, writers, artists, teachers and other eminent personalities were picked up from their houses and blindfolded before being taken to torture cells where they were executed en masse in brush fire at Rayerbazar and Mirpur.
The horrors of December 14, 1971 are the main focus of the ongoing trial of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bangladesh. Leading Jamaat figures now stand accused of masterminding brutal killing of intellectuals that occurred only two days before the Pakistani occupation forces surrendered on December 16, 1971.
December 14 is a day that marks not only one of the darkest chapters in the history of Bangladesh but the world’s as well. It is hard to think of a similar incident anywhere in the world where intellectuals were systematically rounded up and methodically annihilated to crush the backbone of a nation. In recent times a few among the known collaborators have been tried and executed, but the people of the country are yet to see any signs of guilt or remorse in them.
In fact intellectuals and professionals were killed throughout nine months of the liberation war, but the largest number of execution of intellectuals in one daytook place on December 14. This is why the day is observed as ‘Martyred Intellectuals Day’ in Bangladesh.
The recently executed Jamaat leaders including its chief Matiur Rahman Nizami who was then President of Jamaat student front Islami Chhatra Sangha andAli Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid, then chief of East Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangha along with their Razakar/al-Badr/al Shams cohorts committed the most horrendous crimes and murders to crush the liberation war. The motive was to intellectually cripple the yet-to-be born Bengali nation and deprive it of able leadership.
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid was second in command of the infamous al Badr, an auxiliary force of the Pak army. It was he who orchestrated massacre of the front line intellectuals and professionals, hours from the independence in 1971.
According to a report published in the vernacular daily Purbodesh of January 9, 1972 Ashrafuzzaman Khan, a Jamaat leader and Commander of al Badr militia and killer of intellectuals of Bangladesh, fled the country in 1972. He went to Pakistan and worked for Radio Pakistan for quite some time before taking shelter in US. After the liberation, Ashrafuzzaman's personal diary was recovered from his residence. Two pages of his diary registered names and residential addresses of some teachers and medical officers of Dhaka University who were killed by him. He has been tried in absentia and sentenced to death for the war crimes committed in 1971. Now he is living inNew York for more than three decades and presently he heads the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
Another al Badr commander who played a key role in killing of intellectuals in Dhaka in 1971 was Chaudhury Mueen Uddin who is now Vice Chairman of East London Mosque and presently heads the British charity ‘Muslim Aid’ which has an annualbudget of over 20 million Pound. Mueen Uddin, who was a journalist of the daily Purbodesh in Dhaka, was at the forefront of anti-liberation activities perpetrating atrocities on the freedom fighters. He rounded up, tortured and killed many prominent citizens to deprive the soon-to-be-born state of its intellectual and cultural elite.
Killing of intellectuals constituted the most shameful chapter of the genocide that took place during the Bangladesh liberation war. The chief architect of these gruesome killings was Maj Gen Rao Farman Ali, a senior high profile Pak Army officer who was Military Adviser to the Governor of East Pakistan in 1971. After the liberation of Bangladesh, a diary of Maj Gen Rao Farman Ali containing list of the intellectuals who were killed on December 14, 1971 was discovered, indicating that it was he who blueprinted the massacre of intellectuals in 1971.
Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/67224067.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
