All over East and West Pakistan, speculation was rife about
a probable declaration of independence for Bangladesh by the Awami League
chief, particularly against a background of the pressure he was under from his
party and the students. Senior leaders of the party met at Bangabandhu's
Dhanmondi 32 residence to weigh the pros and cons of what he would be stating
on March 7. Meanwhile, East Pakistan was being administered through a series of
directives from the Awami League. These directives were made public on behalf
of the party by the party general secretary general Tajuddin Ahmed. Employees
of state and private organisations had by March 6 demonstrated complete
allegiance to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Dhaka station of Radio Pakistan had
already been calling itself Dhaka Betar since March 5. It planned
to broadcast live Bangabandhu's address at the Race Course on March 7.
regime were obviously concerned that unless such a move was
made, the possibility of Mujib's declaring independence for Bangladesh the next
day would become all the greater. However, in the course of his address,
General Yahya Khan sounded indignant and clearly seemed to be pinning the blame
for the crisis on the Awami League. He noted that his efforts to call a round
table conference on March 10 had not been accepted. And he made it clear, in
what sounded like a threat, that as long as he was in charge, the Pakistan
armed forces would do everything in their power to uphold the integrity and
solidarity of Pakistan. The speech predictably did not go On the day,
President Yahya Khan went on the national hook-up in Rawalpindi again, this
time to announce a convening of the National Assembly in Dhaka on March 25. He
and the rest of the down well in East Pakistan. A significant development
of the
Iinfamous
as the Butcher of Baluchistan for his murderous operations against Baluch
tribals in the early 1960s, as governor of East Pakistan. He would also be
functioning as martial law administrator, zone B. The move came following the
departure, in quick succession, of Admiral S.M. Ahsan from the position of
governor and Lt. Gen. Sahibzada Yaqub Khan from the position of martial law
administrator, zone B. Tikka Khan's efforts to be sworn in as governor would be
thwarted by Chief Justice B.A. Siddiky's refusal to administer the oath of
office to him against the background of an intensifying nationalist movement in
Bangladesh.
The investigation agency for International Crimes Tribunal
has found former Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Ghulam Azam's involvement in genocides,
rapes and tortures on the people of Rajshahi during the Liberation War in 1971.
The crimes against humanity proliferated in Rajshahi after
Ghulam Azam gave provocative speeches abusing religion, said investigators
Additional Superintendent of Police (SP) Motiur Rahman and Inspector Shyamol
Chowdury.
The two investigators are visiting the north-western city
probing war crime charges against Ghulam Azam.
Talking exclusively to The Daily Star, the investigators
said they found evidence and witnesses who testified that Ghulam Azam ordered
various heinous measures during a meeting with the member of Central Peace
committee in the town.
The investigators, however, refrained from disclosing the
names of the witnesses. They said before going to Rajshahi from Kushtia, they
took a copy of Jamaat mouthpiece the Dainik Sangram of July 19, 1971 from
Bangla Academy Library in Dhaka. The issue has a report on Ghulam Azam's
Peace Committee meeting at the municipal hall in Rajshahi on July 8 with the
committee's Rajshahi chairman Ayen Uddin in the chair, which the witnesses also
confirmed. “There is nothing to prove that the Hindus are friends of the
Muslims. They have always been holding the Muslims as rivals and killing
Muslims has been a daily incident in India even after the separation,” Dainik
Sangram quoted Azam as saying. The report also quoted him as saying, “The
Hindus created divisions among the Muslims raising the question of Bangalee and
non-Bangalee. Foundation of a nation with Hindus and Muslims is not possible
unless the Muslims are separated over the language issue.”
Investigators Rahman and Chowdhury came to Rajshahi Friday
afternoon and separately talked with researchers, historians, freedom fighters,
journalists and relatives of martyrs. On Saturday, they visited nine spots
of genocides, mass grave and Pakistani torture camps in Rajshahi city, Mugroil
and Sakoa in Mohonpur, and Thanapara and Sardah Police Academy in Charghat
upazila. The team took photographs and footages of people identifying the
mass graves and torture camps. In the morning, the team went to
Mugroil, around 25km from Rajshahi city, where there is a shaheed minar
(monument commemorating martyrs) with names of only 15 martyrs inscribed on
it. The probe team talked to Basir Ali Sheikh and Hashim Uddin who lost
their family members when the Pakistani occupation army captured 15 villagers
on November 30, 1971 and shot them dead for helping freedom fighters. The
army ravaged the village and torched every house, they said, adding that
razakars (Pakistani collaborators) Daud Hossain, Nur-e Anwar, Motiur, Wahed and
some others, who led the Pakistani army to the village, are still living freely
in the village. From Mugroil the probe team visited a torture camp at
Sakoa Madrasa where a number of freedom fighters and commoners were killed and
tortured.
In Rajshahi, the investigators visited Babla Bon mass grave
and torture camp near T Groyen of the Padma River. The Pakistani army with
the help of their local collaborators picked up 17 people, including
intellectuals and politicians, from their houses on the night of November 25,
1971, told freedom fighter Shahjahan Ali Borjahan in presence of
journalists. The locals believe all the martyrs were buried alive as their
bodies bore no bullet wounds, he added.
At Moslem Ali's house near Boalia Police Station, Moslem's
son Salauddin Raju told reporters that after they had gone into hiding the
occupation army took over their house to run a torture camp there. The
investigators also visited Rajshahi University mass grave, Martyrs' Memorial
Archive and Shaheed Shamsuzzoha Hall where countless men, women and children
suffered the atrocities of Pakistani army and their collaborators since April
1971. “Rajshahi apparently had been a bit different from other parts of
the country, as the Pakistani collaborators here were so dominating that they opened
torture camps at many places,” said SP Matiur Rahman.
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