Probe agency gets records
The investigators of war crimes yesterday received a list of 1,775 alleged war criminals and accounts of their role during the Liberation War from research-based organisation The War Crimes Facts Finding Committee (WCFFC).
The WCFFC voluntarily submitted the list and other documents and evidence to help investigators of the newly formed investigation agency in connection with trial of offenders, who committed genocide, crimes against humanity and peace in 1971.
WCFFC chief Dr MA Hasan handed over the list and documents to Abdul Matin, chief investigator of the agency. Hasan told reporters most on the list have died and only 400 or 500 are still alive.
For example, he cited the name of late Khwaja Khairuddin, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League, on the submitted list.
As for the living alleged war criminals, names of BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, Jamaat-e-Islami leaders including its chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, former chief Golam Azam, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Assistant Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam appeared on the list.
Hasan claims the documents are strong enough to prove the allegations against the war crimes suspects.
Chief Investigator Abdul Matin told The Daily Star they have officially received all the documents from WCFFC so that from now on they can consider those as official.
"We will go through the documents and see which helps in our investigation," said Matin.
Hasan said the Jamaat leaders were members of Al-Badr, which had a killing squad during the Liberation War, and WCFFC has collected documents about its activities.
He said WCFFC published the list of alleged war criminals in 2008 and the Special Branch and National Security Intelligent scrutinised it as per the directive of the then caretaker government.
He added the entire nation will fail if the government fails to try the war criminals.
The war criminals hiding abroad have to be brought back for trial, he said, adding, his organisation is ready to help the government by hiring legal experts from the United Nations to proceed with the war crimes case.
The submitted documents include 26 books, list and sketch maps of some Baddhabhumis [killing grounds], photos of victims and offenders, audio and video records of killings and torture during the Liberation War, and audio records on the orders published by Pakistani army on March 25, 1971.
The WCFFC also gave forensic exhibits including bones, earrings and parts of dresses of victims to the investigators.
The committee handed over some copies of the daily Sangram, mouthpiece of Jamaat-e Islami, along with some foreign books. The books are The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution by Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military by Husain Haqqani, Sun Set at Midday by Mohiuddin Choudhury, Blood and Soil by Ben Kiernan and Papers on Genocide, War Crime and Crime Against Humanity in Bangladesh by Dr MA Hasan.
Earlier on March 25, the government announced a special tribunal, prosecution team and the investigation agency to try the war criminals.
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