Zia joined 1971 war for circumstance, not ideology

Former president and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman joined the Liberation War based on circumstances of that time, not on “ideological grounds”, Liberation War Minister AKM Mozammel Huq told parliament yesterday.

“Major Ziaur Rahman was the initiator of the unloading of Pakistani arms and ammunition from Swat Ship on March 25, 1971 as he was a supporter of the Pakistani occupation army,” he said in reply to lawmakers' queries.

He also alleged that Ziaur Rahman “was a part of the conspiracy trying to make a loose confederation with Pakistan during the Liberation War as a friend of killer Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed”.

Ziaur Rahman declared the war of independence on behalf of the country's founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 27, 1971 and he was a sector commander and the Z Force commander during the Liberation War, Mozammel said.

Commander-in-chief of the Liberation War General MAG Osmani in 1971 “suspended Zia for his proposal of forming a War Council on refusing to join the Liberation War under the Mujibnagar government”, said Mozammel.

“Later he was given the charge of sector commander following his apology,” he said.

After taking office of the chief martial law administrator after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's assassination in 1975, Ziaur Rahman provided embassy jobs to the self-proclaimed killers, Mozammel replied in a written statement.

Zia also approved the indemnity ordinance (which gave immunity from legal actions over the assassination of Bangabandhu, coups and other political events between 1975 and 1979), he said.

Zia also incorporated anti-liberation war people including Shah Azizur Rahman and war criminal Abdul Alim in the cabinet which proves that Zia was not a freedom fighter on ideological grounds, he said.