Law will be amended to try Jamaat: Anisul Huq

Law Minister Anisul Huq today said the government will take further initiatives to amend the relevant law of holding trial of Jamaat-e-Islami as an organisation for committing war crimes.

The law will be amended as per instruction from the prime minister, the minister said while talking to reporters at his Secretariat office after he was accorded a reception by the law ministry officials and staffs.

The previous Aawmi League government took an initiative to amend the law for holding trial of Jamaat as an organisation involved in committing crimes against humanity but the process was not completed during its regime.

The law minister also informed that a separate commission will be formed to identify the conspirators behind the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the four national leaders in jail.

WHAT DID THE WAR CRIMES PROBE AGENCY SAY ON THE DELAY OF JAMAAT’S TRIAL?

The investigation agency of the International Crimes Tribunal on January 1 expressed discontent as trial of Jamaat-e-Islami as a party did not begin even five years after completion of a probe over its role in 1971.

“My personal opinion is that the matter [trial of Jamaat] should be settled. It [Jamaat] has already lost registration. There are allegations and observations against it. It has been mentioned as a criminal organisation in each judgment,” said Abul Hannan Khan, coordinator of the agency.

HOW MANY KILLERS OF BANGABANDHU ARE STILL AT LARGE?

Six convicted fugitive killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman hiding abroad are yet to be brought back home in spite of the government's special efforts.

The six fugitives are: Col (dismissed) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (relieved) Shariful Haque Dalim, Maj (retd) Noor Chowdhury, Maj (retd) Rashed Chowdhury, Capt Abdul Majed and Risaldar Moslehuddin Khan.

On November 19, 2009, the Supreme Court upheld a High Court verdict, confirming capital punishment of 12 people, including the six, for killing the Father of the Nation and most of his family members on August 15, 1975.

Five of the convicts -- Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Mohiuddin Ahmed -- were executed on January 27, 2010. The other killer, Aziz Pasha, died in Zimbabwe in 2001.

WHERE ARE THE KILLERS OF FOUR NATIONAL LEADERS?

More than 14 years have passed since a trial court handed punishment to 11 perpetrators for the killing of four national leaders inside the erstwhile Dhaka central jail, but their sentence is yet be implemented.

The government could not even trace nine of them despite making strong efforts through diplomatic channels, intelligence agencies and the Interpol to bring the fugitives home.

Convicted killers Rashed Chowdhury and Noor Chowdhury are hiding in the USA and Canada respectively and the government has failed to bring them back.

 Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, AHM Quamruzzaman and M Mansur Ali were shot dead following repeated bayonet charges in the jail.

The leaders were put behind bars soon after the August 15, 1975, bloodbath that claimed the lives of Bangabandhu and most of his family members.