Govt firm about war crimes trial

The government would not retreat from completing the trial of war criminals and implementing the verdicts, Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said yesterday.
He was addressing a rally organised by the AL-led 14-party alliance at Laldighi Maidan in Chittagong city.
About a ban on Jamaat, he said the government was bound by the constitution and the laws. Therefore, it must go about banning Jamaat-Shibir legally.
Besides, he added, the government has amended the International Crimes Tribunal law to allow trial of organisations for war crimes. Now if the Jamaat-e-Islami was convicted at the tribunal, the party would be banned.
Turning to the arson, vandalism and attacks on law enforcers during recent hartals, Ashraf, also LGRD and cooperatives minister, said these were terrorist activities and could not be part of a political or democratic movement.
They were carrying out such activities as "they (BNP-Jamaat) have lost their belief in people and people's strength,” he observed.
He urged all democratic forces to get united against the BNP-Jamaat.
Chaired by AL Chittagong city unit President ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, the rally was addressed, among others, by Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon.