Jamaat is not banned, but it is dying out

The Dhaka Times Desk Although Jamaat-e-Islami has not been banned in Bangladesh so far, the London-based weekly magazine The Economist commented that the party is being destroyed as a political force.

The magazine, which plays a controversial role in the war crimes trial in Bangladesh, made this comment in the context of the recent sentencing of two Jamaat leaders for war crimes. Yesterday, on July 19, the online edition of the magazine published a report titled 'Bangladeshi Politics - Jamaat Tomorrow: After A Lal, More War Crimes Convictions for Opposition Figures'.

The commentary report says, "The main Islamic party of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami's screws are getting tight." 'Troublesome' domestic court The International Criminal Tribunal recently convicted two more prominent opposition leaders for their roles in the bloody 1971 'secession' from Pakistan. So far five people have been jailed or are said to be hanged. At the same time, the trial of many others is going on.'

The report also says, 'Ghulam Azam, who has been leading the pro-Pakistan Jamaat for a long time, has been called a 'torchlight' by the state's lawyers. According to prosecutors, Ghulam Azam directed the killing of intellectuals in Dhaka during the late conflict (war of independence). At that time, Jamaat's student organization Islami Chhatra Sangh (now Chhatra Shibir) formed 'Death Squad' (Albadar). Their intention was to create terror by committing heinous crimes alongside the Pakistani army. On July 15, the tribunal found Ghulam Azam guilty of genocide, war crimes and murder and sentenced him to 90 years in prison. Considering his age and poor health, the sentence was commuted to death. However, his lawyer claimed, opposing independence was his fault.

Two days after this verdict, the tribunal sentenced another prominent Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid to death. The tribunal found Mujahid, the social welfare minister of the elected government from 2001 to 2006, guilty of genocide and torture against Hindus in the 1971 conflict, which left between 300,000 and 300,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

'There is nothing surprising in these judgments. The massive anti-Jamaat protests in February were also virtually futile. But the reality is that these two verdicts were recently held up for a long time due to street violence after the war crimes verdict against some of the Jamaat leaders. More than 100 people have been killed in the violence in the past few months, where Jamaat terrorists and activists of Islamist groups sympathetic to them have clashed with the police. In the wake of several protests and casualties at the time, the tribunal's judges and their political leaders had hoped that the response would be relatively calm if the verdict was handed down in Ramadan.

The report also said, 'In this situation, there is more uncertainty in the political situation just six months before the next general election. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its main ally Jamaat have been accusing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of preparing for an opaque election. The BNP is treating the flawed war crimes tribunal as a ploy to oust minor partners from its coalition. The party has been demanding a caretaker government system for conducting elections while threatening protests and strikes if the demands are not met. Perhaps the next six months will not be as peaceful as the previous six months.' Courtesy: Voice of Daily Times.