Forget and forgive: A cliché

Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhury Nisar Ali Khan was quick to condemn the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh for handing down death penalty to the Jamaat e Islami Chief Matiur Rahman Nizami. The minister talks about 'forget and forgive.' He is surprised by Bangladesh government digging up the graves of the past and reopening old wounds. Too bad he can't see the deep wounds that still remain open for every Bangladeshi who witnessed 1971, especially those who were victims of the excesses committed by Razakars and al-Badr under the umbrella of Jamaat e Islami in 1971. He is obviously also blind to the reaction of Bangladeshis around the country at the verdict. The sense of relief, closing deep and long wounds, and putting to rest those who lie in those graves in peace from here on -- that is how Bangladeshis received the news of the verdict. We as a nation will wait for each verdict yet to come to be the same -- death penalty for the killers. Majority of the population of Bangladesh want to bring closure to the episode of 1971 and that can only be brought about through trial and punishment of the Razakars, al-Badr, and their masters. The minister is right -- it must be put to rest. The sooner these criminals are punished -- which can never be equal to the punishment meted out to Bangladeshis in 1971 -- the better. We want to move forward and we cannot do so with the killers flying the flag of Bangladesh on their roof tops and their cars, still living freely while our loved ones keep turning in their graves in pain. The trials and punishments should have come and gone long, long, ago. Alas, that did not happen. Now it is here. Those of us who lived through the nightmare of the war of 1971finally see justice being done. The images of torture and killing cannot be erased from the memory of those who live. That is why it amazes us to see the language used by a minister who flies the flag of Pakistan on his car! Matiur Rahman Nizami and his cohorts should have been flying the flag of Pakistan in Pakistan. They fought for Pakistan against Bangladesh.

We are saddened to see Chaudhury Nisar Ali Khan's hands full with fifty dead bodies and scores injured because of a suicide bomb blast at the Wagah border between India and Pakistan. Perhaps he can now understand the pain of those who have lost their loved ones, even if it is a miniscule reflection of the larger picture of what happened in Bangladesh 43 years ago. Perhaps he will do his best to find the perpetrators and punish them with death penalty. After all he is the Minister of Interior!

The questions I will ask him are: Will he forgive and forget the incident that took the lives of fifty innocent people? Will he not seek maximum punishment allowed by law for the perpetrators, whoever they may be? Will he stop pursuing the case if it is the JI of Pakistan behind the heinous attack? Will he give up without getting to the roots of the attack if it takes Pakistan fifty years to catch them?

The writer is a former Ambassador.