To pick up or not to pick up the gauntlet

The bleeding wound afflicted on our psyche by the episode of 1971 was crudely opened up when Ali Ahsan Mujahid, secretary general of the Jamaat, while talking to newsmen after his deliberations with the EC on October 25, arrogantly denied the existence of any war criminal or anti-liberation force in the country.
Jolted and taken aback by Mujahid's arrant lie, viewers of one of the TV channels only days later were further shocked to learn from an acolyte of Jamaat that our fully blown War of Liberation, with the indirect involvement of two superpowers, the worst genocide after the second world war, and even the dangerous presence of the nuclear armed US seventh fleet in the Bay of Bengal, was just a "civil war." There must be a limit to the lunacy of men, even of those on the lunatic fringe! But there isn't any, as is evident from the observation of Shah Abdul Hannan.
Thirty six years on, the trauma of the tragedies accompanying the war refuses to go away. The two pronouncements coming from Jamaat in rather quick succession only helped to aggravate the wound and add insult to injury, as well remind us afresh of the nightmare experience of atrocities perpetrated by the Jamaat collaborators of the occupation forces, and the impending danger from the same quarter.
Since the beginning of our statehood, the hostility with our erstwhile adversary has stopped. As the practice goes in international relations after any major conflict, there was reconciliation, and we have a first class working relationship with Pakistan -- notwithstanding odd irritants. There are even attitudinal changes, where many Pakistanis this scribe came across were found to be genuinely penitent, and eager to start a fresh chapter with their one time co-traveler. Writing in newspapers, thoughtful Pakistanis have urged their government to go the extra mile in restoring old emotional links with Bangladesh, which is, in their view, more than just another country and vital partner in South Asian politics.
While these positive changes are indeed encouraging, the Jamaat never seemed reconciled to the reality of Bangladesh as envisioned by its founding father, although it is all too eager to reap the fruits of our sovereign existence and a place in the body politic of the country it opposed tooth and nail. They have never been contrite over their past misdeeds -- particularly their diabolic role during the liberation war. They, including Mr. Mujahid, organised the al-Badr, the killing squad for murdering the freedom fighters, burning their homesteads, and violating the honour of the women who were, perforce, left behind.
The bestial killing of the country's intellectuals is believed to have been masterminded and executed by Jamaat and its anti-liberation cohorts. It is a great irony that the claim of Bangladesh having no war criminal or anti-liberation force comes from one who himself is credibly accused of organising some of the killing squads as the leader of Jamaat's student front, who are dreaded even now, and whose terror tactics include the cutting of a victim's jugular vein. But for the active collaboration of the Jamaat, perhaps as many as three million Bengalis would not have to face martyrdom.
In the garb of Islam, it is a different breed altogether, a class of unrepentant and hardened sinners who consistently lie in denying their heinous role in 1971, or try to justify their crimes. Farthest away from the lofty tenets of Islam, as well as the teachings of the scriptures and the Holy Prophet, they, however, repeatedly take refuge in Islam itself to exploit the religious sentiments of the common folk to advance their hidden agenda of pushing the country into a fascist and medieval mould, in which obscurantism will be the nation's destiny.
During the BNP-Jamaat regime, Jamaat's success was phenomenal in that direction, of course with the blessings and patronisation of the alliance's senior partner. The Jamaat surreptitiously proceeded to eliminate likely voices that could be raised against their game plan. Religious militancy, which was called the media's creation Matiur Rahman Nizami, could conveniently be used to cut the pro-liberation forces to size.
The Jamaat, not much affected by the reformist politics of the present dispensation, has again raised its ugly head and, in fact, thrown a challenge to the country and its founding principles. In doing so, it has assailed the rampart on which rests our War of Liberation, our independence, the constitution, and the dreams of our progeny. It appears ready for a fight, and has thrown down the gauntlet.
We vacillated for long on the issue of whether to pick up the gauntlet, and remained blissfully unaware of the strength they had gathered, first when they were rehabilitated by General Zia in 1975, and then again when the question of Golam Azam's citizenship came up during the first government of Khaleda Zia in 1991.
On both occasions, we capitulated. However, there are flickers of hope this time, when there is unanimity for resisting this anti-liberation force by denying them registration with the EC and also putting them in the dock for trial of their anti-state crimes.
The chief adviser has already given the nod and the sector commanders of the liberation war have taken the lead in the movement, while the legal community has said that they could be tried. Since it is a national issue, the initiative for taking up the trial of the anti-liberation forces will have to come from the government. The whole nation is keeping its fingers crossed and observing how the authorities go about in dealing with the enemies of our independence.
Brig (retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.