Social organisation demands trial of Pak army officers

A social organisation led by a minister yesterday revealed a list of 200 former officers of Pakistan's armed forces and demanded their trial for committing crimes during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

The list will be given to the investigation agency of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), said the leaders of Antorjatik Juddhaporadh Gonobichar Andolon.

The Andolon convener, Shajahan Khan, also the shipping minister, revealed the names at a press conference at Swadhinata Hall on the capital's Topkhana Road.

The list came at a time when calls for trying Pakistani prisoners of war (POWs), who allegedly committed war crimes during the nine-month war, are getting louder.

Although the POWs were repatriated following a tripartite agreement in 1974, experts now find no legal bar to bringing them to book.

Saying that trial of the POWs is now a “national demand”, the ICT investigation agency on January 18 formed a special committee to gather information about the suspects.

At the press conference, Shajahan said 132 officers were involved in crimes like genocide, rape, looting and arson, while the remaining 68 masterminded the crimes. The organisation prepared the list using information and documents from different sources, he said.

"The trial of 195 officers has been discussed in the last few years. Our research has found involvement of five more officers in the war crimes....If we find more Pakistani officers complicit, we will reveal their names later," the minister said.

"Even we demand posthumous trial of those who died."

Responding to another question on whether revealing of this list would affect diplomatic ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh, Shajahan Khan said, "We don't want to sever ties with Pakistan. Rather Pakistan is acting against diplomatic norms."