Published on 12:00 AM, December 04, 2011

Our correspondents Ashutosh Sarkar, Rizanuzzaman Laskar and Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary yesterday talked to a number of leading personalities:

It's blatant disrespect


Shahriar Kabir

The demand is a blatant demonstration of disrespect to the sovereignty of the country and its judicial system, said Shahriar Kabir, Executive President of Ekattorer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee.
“No state can interfere in the judicial system of another country,” Kabir told The Daily Star yesterday. “Forget the international community, not even the government can influence it.”
Every free country has a sovereign judicial system. The mere suggestion of interference in its activities is unconstitutional and a blatant defiance of the country's sovereignty, he said.
“No citizen, who respects the constitution, can make a demand like this,” he said. “This shows that the BNP and Jamaat do not care about the country's very sovereignty.”
He said the BNP had been very active in its efforts to save the war criminals, and the latest demand is nothing but a continuation of those efforts.
“This not surprising at all,” he said, adding that opposition leader Khaleda Zia had already said that the party would undo everything the ICT has done on the issue of the war crimes trial.
“They will say whatever they want to say. But if we take the time to listen to them, there would not be any trial,” said Shahriar Kabir.
He said the law under which the trial is being held is one of the best in the world. And once completed, the judges who will have taken part in the process will be considered as some of the best judges in the country.
“Our demand is that the war criminals should be tried as soon as possible. And any inadequacies of the ICT, including the lack of manpower, should be resolved immediately,” he said.