Patrons of war criminals should also be tried: PM
Mentioning that the patrons of war criminals who had been involved in genocide during the 1971 Liberation War are equally guilty, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said they should also be tried for their crimes.
“We've held the trial of war criminals and executed the court verdicts. I think it's necessary to equally try those who rewarded the war criminals, gave the national flag to their hands and made them ministers in independent Bangladesh,” she said while addressing a discussion in the capital.
The prime minister continued, “The war criminals carried out the genocide. But those who patronised them, made them ministers, MPs and created a scope for them to do politics are equally guilty.”
Ruling Awami League arranged the programme at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, marking Genocide Day.
Hasina said BNP founder Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia had made war criminals ministers.
She said the trial of those who had directly been involved in genocide will continue on the soil of this country. “There's no mercy for them. They must be tried. And hatred will also be vented on the patrons.”
She said no genocide with so severity was committed in any other country across the world where so many people had been killed in a short time. “There's no newspaper in the world that didn't carry the news of this genocide.”
She said, “I become surprised when some political leaders in our country, even Khaleda Zia, say that 30 lakh people were not killed (during the Liberation War).”
About parliament's adoption of a resolution in 2017 to observe March 25 as Genocide Day, she said they took the decision so that the nation and next generations do not forget the misdeeds of the Pakistani occupation forces and their local collaborators, including Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams, who committed the genocide in 1971.
The prime minister said they must establish Bangladesh as a dignified country in the world. “Bangladesh will have to go ahead upholding the status of a developing country.”
She said the centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the golden jubilee of the country's independence will be celebrated in 2020 and 2021 respectively. “Bangladesh will surely be a hunger- and poverty-free country during the two celebrations and a developed and prosperous one in South Asia by 2041.”
“We'll be able to take revenge of this genocide when Bangladesh will be a hunger- and poverty-free, developed and prosperous country,” the prime minister added.
The Pakistani occupation forces carried out the brutalities and cowardly attacks on the unarmed Bangalees on the black night of March 25 in 1971.
The day is being officially observed as Genocide Day for the second time in the country as parliament unanimously adopted a resolution on March 11, 2017.