Bangladesh charges four with war crimes from 1971

Jul 26, 2010, 13:51 GMT

Dhaka - Bangladesh on Monday issued arrest warrants for four detained leaders of an Islamist political party on charges of crimes against humanity during the 1971 liberation war, officials said.

A tribunal headed by Justice Nizamul Huq issued the warrants against the chief of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Matiur Rahman Nizami; secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid; and assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Mollah.

They were arrested earlier on charges of plotting to destabilize the current government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed.

The prosecution charged the Jamaat leaders for collaborating with the Pakistani occupation force to commit genocide, murder, rape, torture, looting and arson during the nine-month independence war.

The Jamaat-e-Islami party had opposed Bangladesh's independence.

The government formed the tribunal in March to prosecute the collaborators of Pakistani forces. An earlier war crimes tribunal was cancelled after a political changeover in 1975, when independence hero Sheikh Mijibur Rahman was assassinated.

According to some historians, 3 million unarmed people were killed, 200,000 women were violated and tens of thousands of homes were torched by Pakistani forces and their local collaborators.

Bangladesh Sector Commander Forum, a group of 1971 war veterans, revealed last year that 11,000 indicted war criminals were released from jail a few months after Mujib's assassination.