Newsgroups: soc.culture.bangladesh

 >From: naeem@occs.cs.oberlin.edu (Naeem Mohaiemen)
 >Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 03:06:38 GMT
 >
 >
 >Mar 26 [upi]
 >
 >"The trial will be held..No one will dare stop it", said organizer Jahanara
 >Imam. 
 >
 >Organizers said they would defy govt warnings
 >
 >A 12 member panel announced the verdict of death before a crowd of 125,000 
 >at Shuhrawardy Park..The park is where Sk. Mujib declared start
 >of 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.
 >
 >Renewed hostility towards Azam..was triggered by his reappointment last dec
 >as head of Jamaat-e-Islami after 20 year hiatus.
 >
 >During independence war, azam was accused of sponsoring death squads and 
 >backing the Pakistani troops
 >
 >Veteran author Jahanara Imam, whose son and husband died at hands of 
 >Pakistani troops in 1971, led the trial
 >
 >A Dhaka University prof. read out the charges:
 >
 >"Between March 26 and December 1971, Golam Azam committed war crimes and
 >crimes against humanity by directly and indirectly assisting Pakistani army
 >to murder 3 million men, women and children and rape or violate nearly
 >200,000 women," read Anisuzzaman.
 >
 >Cries of "Death!Death!" rang out across the park as the demonstrators, in
 >a massive show of hands, delivered their verdict against Azam.
 >
 >"This is just the beginning," Jahanara Imam declared. "We will now go to
 >the govt and say, "This is the people's verdict, now you implement it."
 >
 >The trial was to have included detailed allegation from families of those 
 >killed in 1971, but had to be curtailed when police demolished three podiums
 >built for this purpose
 >
 >Thomas Keating, NY attorney, who arrived Wednesday to observe trial:
 >"It is clear that the people of Bangladesh will not be satisfied until all
 >charges relating to the '71 genocide have been aired. So far I have not heard
 >or seen anything to suggest that the govt has investigated the murders of '71,
 >nor taken any testimony of the victims."
 >
 >
 >--
 >Naeem Mohaiemen  naeem@occs.cs.oberlin.edu  snm8696@oberlin  216-774-1993
 >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >"The trial will be held... No one will dare stop it"
 >			[Jahanara Imam, Mar 26, 1992]
 >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 I hope that justice will be done to everyone. I hope that killers, like Kader
 siddiqui will also go through such trials.  (Or should I assume that it is
 okay for Kader Siddiqui and people like him to kill Non-Bengalis in order
 to celebrate the independence or may be for revenge.)

 I, being a Bihari, who went through the same experience as Bengalis did, also
 remember those days.  All this discussion from you guys gives the idea that
 only Pakistan Army has committed the crimes against Bengalis and Bengalis were
 the innocent by standers.  No one talks about the crime committed by
 Bengalis. No one mentions the innocent Bihari families got killed by these
 freedom fighters.  Dead includes people of all ages and sexes.
 
 Here, I am not trying to justify the act of Pakistan Army since there
 is no justification for that but I would like to know how you guys justify the
 killing of Biharis in Santahar, Khulna, Rung Pur etc. during the nine months of
 Bangla Liberation movement.  How you guys justify the one month of Bihari 
 killing after 6 December.  Don't tell me that these were isolated incidents.
 I am yet to see a single Bihari family who didn't lose atleast one member
 of their family.  My three uncles were picked up from their house by Bengalis
 along with all the other Biharis from the street and none of them except one
 survived. The only lone survivor was seriously injured and according to him
 the only reason he survived was because his captors thought that he is dead
 and threw his body in a nala.  It happened in Rang Pur.  According to 
 another eyewitness, one other Bihari was captured by Bengalis and was skinned
 alive and then was killed. How about those Non-Bengali females got raped
 and abducted by Bengali Freedom fighters.  Were they considered as bounty
 for the victory. The only reason we survived was because we were picked up
 by the Indian Army as POWs.

 The only reason I am posting this article is to know how you guys are 
 justifying the killing of hundred of thousands of Biharis during the
 celebration of independence.  There have been a demand to bring all the
 war criminals to justice.  I want to know if Kader Siddiqui can be considered
 as a war criminal.  There are evidences that he killed Biharis without any
 trial.  The famous incident was when he invited all the journalists
 to the Dhaka stadium (?) and killed two Biharis without any trial in
 front of all the spectators including journalists. I believe photograph of this
 incident was published in news papers and magazines throughout the world.
 
 Core of this whole discussion is to say that Pakistan Army did commit the
 atrocities in then East Pakistan, but Bengali Liberation fighters were no
 angels either. Some of the Bengali heroes also committed similar
 atrocities against non-Bengalis and they are not ashamed of their act.
 In fact no one seems to be ashamed of these heroes' acts during the
 movement.  And lastly to Mr. Naeem, Wasi, Zunaid and others - while you are
 condemning the act of Pakistan Army, and do count me in, also do a justice
 to those innocent Biharis got killed by your heroes.  Don't pretend that
 nothing happened to Non-Bengalis before and after independence.  Similar
 to the eye witnesses you guys have for the atrocities against Bengalis, 
 there are also eye witnesses for the crimes committed by Bengali freedom
 fighters. 

 Regards
 Tanwir Syed

 "You are the winner therefore you are the good guys and loosers are evils.
  Otherwise it might have been the other way around.  This is the way we
  write the history. No one sees the crimes of a winner.  After victory
  winner's crime becomes history of bravery and something to be proud of."