A year after the Awami League Government set up the war crimes tribunal to try those who had directly participated or collaborated in the genocide that preceded Bangladeshs liberation in 1971, a notorious razakar has been charged with several offences ranging from murder to rape. Between May and November 1971, when the people of erstwhile East Pakistan were engaged in the war of independence from Pakistan, Delwar Hossain Sayedee had thrown in his lot with the Pakistani Army to crush the Bengali rebellion. As a member of the Razakar Bahini and the laughably named Peace Committee, Sayedee tortured, murdered and raped Bengalis; he led mobs of razakars which looted shops and homes and set entire villages ablaze. He routinely outed Bengali nationalists, freedom fighters and Hindu families to the Pakistani soldiers who then went on to torture, murder and rape their prisoners. The bodies of the victims were dumped in rivers that crisscross Bangladesh. Take, for instance, the incidents of May 4, 1971, for which Sayedee has been charged by the tribunal. On that fateful day, Sayedee led Pakistani soldiers to a secret meeting of freedom fighters, at least 20 of whom were shot dead on the spot. He next led the Pakistanis to a Hindu neighbourhood in Pirojpur Sadar where they looted homes and set them on fire after killing 13 people. Sayedee and his fellow razakars regularly organised such raids on Hindu areas which the Tribunal has rightly deemed as acts of ethnic cleansing and thereby a crime against humanity.
The history of Bangladeshs 1971 Liberation War is littered with such examples of horrific crimes against Bengalis, especially women and intellectuals. The mass graves that were discovered after the fall of Dhaka, the innumerable shocking tales about young girls being raped and killed, the mass murder of teachers and students were not only an indictment of the brutal Pakistani soldiers but also their local collaborators like Sayedee and other Jamaatis. The razakars should have been tried and punished immediately after the liberation of Bangladesh but that never happened because of a tragic sequence of events that began with the assassination of Mujibur Rahman. Sheikh Hasina has kept her promise of bringing the guilty men of 1971 to book so that they are made to pay for their crimes. Earlier, she dealt with the killers of Mujibur Rahman who had till now escaped punishment by sending them to the gallows. This time, it is the turn of the razakars and the Jamaatis.
Turn of the razakars
The history of Bangladeshs 1971 Liberation War is littered with such examples of horrific crimes against Bengalis, especially women and intellectuals. The mass graves that were discovered after the fall of Dhaka, the innumerable shocking tales about young girls being raped and killed, the mass murder of teachers and students were not only an indictment of the brutal Pakistani soldiers but also their local collaborators like Sayedee and other Jamaatis. The razakars should have been tried and punished immediately after the liberation of Bangladesh but that never happened because of a tragic sequence of events that began with the assassination of Mujibur Rahman. Sheikh Hasina has kept her promise of bringing the guilty men of 1971 to book so that they are made to pay for their crimes. Earlier, she dealt with the killers of Mujibur Rahman who had till now escaped punishment by sending them to the gallows. This time, it is the turn of the razakars and the Jamaatis.
Turn of the razakars
Blatant lies against Saydee
