The Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal, which was set up last year to try people suspected of war crimes during the battle for liberation from Pakistan, will formally frame charges against Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
Sayedee, a senior official of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party, is accused of killing more than 50 people, torching villages, rape, looting, and forcibly converting Hindus to Islam. "Today the court will frame charges against Sayedee," Zaid Al Malum, a state prosecutor, told AFP.
Bangladesh, which was called East Pakistan until 1971, has struggled to come to terms with its violent birth. The current government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, says up to three million people were killed in the war -- many murdered by Bangladeshi collaborators of the Pakistani occupying forces. Hasina is the daughter of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The 1971 war began after tens of thousands of people were killed in the capital Dhaka when Pakistan launched Operation Searchlight, a brutal campaign intended to deter Bangladeshis from seeking independence. The killings and subsequent military campaign that allegedly included mass killings, rape and torture served to create a groundswell of public support for the pro-independence movement.
Sayedee has been held in detention along with four other war crime suspects from Jamaat and two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The BNP and Jamaat have dismissed the tribunal as a government "show trial".
The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch has said rules being used by the tribunal to prosecute war crime suspects fall short of international standards.
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Good example of how Pakistan re-wrote history. Always amazes me that people who have access to the internet take no time to read the real history of events - they never let facts get in the way of a good bias.
Common Pakistanis of East and West wings were trapped in a bloody battle of ignorant and ill focussed leadership especially in military. It is a sad chapter but we need to focus on reality rather than fiction.
@saeed: tell these things to bangladeshi court. Your comments are out of the context.
Interesting to see action against jamat people and razakars. Lets hope it's new begining fo r bangladesh.
@Arvind baby..I am not confused...actually my comments are confusing you..!!!
Saeed, you are confused.
As a Pakistani i really become sad when I think of east Pakistan now Bangladesh which was part of Pakistan as of how got separated.I know there were a lot of discrimination against Bengali people but that was and is every where in Pakistan with every ethnicity and people with different languages were and are victim of this discrimination due to the feudal lot and corrupt politicians, but we should have not forget that we both struggled together for this country..and just because India inflamed and used this injustice to instigate Bengali brothers..they should have looked into the larger picture instead of getting trapped buy the plans of our evil neighbor..India had a plan of this division since independence as there never attacked east Pakistan in 1965 war as they did on west side by opening a lot of fronts..they knew if they will attack the east Pakistan there coward and evil plans will no succeed..this is the true coward and fox nature of India as they used Bengali's to break Pakistan because they would have never succeeded in that in any other way and they tested that in 1948 and 1965 before.. I can go very deep in as how India spread its venom against Pakistan but that will be long story..the end point is that we should forget the past and move forward for good relations..if whole of Europe can become one after destroying each others for centuries they why cant we move on and stop this digging of old graves..