War crimes Tribunal is nothing more than Politics at play. We need to look at the distance past to understand the present. (Part Two)

In 2007, an Army backed caretaker government was formed after many national and international cospiracy’s and political drama’s that in sophistication had been unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh.To foreign countries, this part of Bangladesh had always been geo-politically very important since the time of Moguls rule in India. The British had been the first foreign country to establish direct rule in Bengal. This had been only possible because of some traitors that had sold their loyalty for the dream of power. But power never came to Mir Jafor Ali Khan, rather the opposite had happened.The British became the power and had ruled Bengal for two hundred years.

Army General Moin U Ahmed had originally conspired with foreign diplomats for consolidating power for himself. Prominent among them was the Amabasadors of India, The USA, and the UK. The most venomous and affective was the British High commissioner Mr. Anwar Chowdhury. He had local knowledge of Bangladeshi politics and knew the mind set of the politician, as he himself was originally from Bangladeshi District of Sylhet.There had been concerted effort by the Army led caretaker government to break BNP. Many of their leaders, including the Secretary General of the party had tried to minus the leadership and cooperated fully with the Army to realize the dream of the reformist. This scenerio was not exclusive to BNP, but  Awamileague also had a group of reformist that was actively working to that end.

But their plan couldn’t go far due to the resolve of one woman - Begum Khalida Zia. She would rather die than leave the country. She had to sacrifice her two sons physical health for democracy.

Her opponent, Sheikh Hasina, On the contarary, had agreed with the Army General to leave the country and she made her way to the USA, apparently to check her eye sight which had been on the verge of blindness.To this day, nothing had happened to her eyes, but she continue to rule Bangladesh with a clear blatant eye. Begum Zia refused to leave the country, and as result all conspiracy’s to minus the two ladys were foiled and, a date was finalised for the general  election to be held in 2008. All the major political partys of Bangladesh began to publish their manifesto. The Awamileague manifesto was full of new ideas, and wild promises that had an influence on the young voters of Bangladesh. Especially vision 2021, digital Bangladesh, and the promise to bring to justice all those who had committed war crimes during the war in 1971. Just a point to note here: Awamileague 2008 manifesto Anexure especially mentions the keeping of Caretaker Government, democracy and effective parliament. But Later Sheikh Hasina would go at extraordinary length to abolish Caretaker Government system from the constitution.

The war crimes issue to many young Bangladeshi who had not seen the independece war, but have heard from parents or history lessons was an emotional  issue. Awamileague leadership realized this weakness among the young and had used this issue in their 2008 election manifesto, although the issue had been closed by Sheikh Mujib, Sheikh Hasina revived it again to get support from the young voters, promising them initiation of war crime tribunal if they are voted in to power.

With the backing of the Army Gen Moin U Ahmed, Awamileague came to power winning  more than expected  number of seats in the National assembly. Many had suspected that Army General engineered a landslide for the Awamileague under a secret agreement with Sheikh Hasina in cooperation with India. Before the election and during the election Indian secret service had played a crucial role for Awamileague. They provided planning, and huge amount of money for ensuring an Awamileague victory. In return, Sheikh Hasina promised to give India transit and other economic favours and  facilities to the detriment of Bangladeshi national interest.

Sheikh Hasina wanted to take revenge on those Army officers who had killed her father Sheikh Mujib, and were waiting for the conclusion of the trial, and also to punish Jamat BNP, so that her fathers dream for one party rule ,for which he had been killed would be realized.

For this goal, she had to have a two third majority in the parliament to change the constitution, and that was gladly provided through election engineering by the Army. She also needed to eliminate officers in the army who were patriotic BNP jamat supporters, and had some sympathy for coup leaders of 1975. It is alleged that with the help of Indian secret service, and with the tacit approval of some traitors in the Army, General Moin U Ahmed arranged  secondment of the pro BNP Army officers to the BDR, and gathered them unarmed in Philkhana BDR headquarters to carry out a brutal massacre of brilliant officers of Bangladesh Army.

As planned, in broad day light, some BDR personnel with red facemask started killing the Army officers in the Darbar Hall where they had been gathered for briefing by their commander. Many of the officers had managed to escape their attackers from the Darbar Hall, and hid their selves in BDR headquaters, but no attempt had been taken from the government or the army to rescue them, eventually they were all hunted down by their attackers and killed.

This massacre was unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh, not even during the liberation war that many officers had died in one place at the same time. This massacre was carried out soon after Awamileague came to power. The truth of the Philkhana tragedy has been burried with those who had died there,and we may never find out the truth, as evidence had been destroyed by this government.

Once Sheikh Hasina’s major obstacle had been removed, she began a systematic secularisation and politicization of all the civil, military, police and judicial institution of the country. Some of the Army officers who had not been killed or were not on secondment were forcefully made to retire. Bangladesh was now fully under grip of Sheikh Hasina. She now had to elliminate her political opponent who were more daring or vocal to her rule, so a secret team of Killer 100 hundred were formed under Bangladeshi Prime Minister and her defence advisor Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui.

Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui maintains special connection with Indian RAW for decades, since he was in army service. Such relations of RAW with him were because of his family relations with Sheikh Hasina. When Bangladesh Awami League formed government in January 2009, Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui became extremely important in the government due to his official position as the defense advisor to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister as well as his personal identity of being the brother-in-law of Prime Minister’s younger sister Sheikh Rehana. The selection of the entire batch of ruling party cadres, who were sent to India for commando training were directly done by Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui and a few of his loyal colleagues and retired army officers, while on return of the members of the “Crusader-100” team from India, they were provided a hit list comprising names of opposition politicians, members of Bangladeshi media and some members of the civil society. According to information, the list contains names of more than 83 people; the members of these specially trained hitters were housed inside several buildings at Dhaka’s Gulshan and Baridhara areas. The Baridhara “bases” of the hitters were maintained directly by Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui and each of such places were equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipments as well as entry of civilians were restricted within these premises.

political secret killings and abduction took place with impunity, the most publicised and notable was the abduction  of Mr. M Elias Ali MP,  belonging to Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It is not known wheather Elias Ali is dead or alive, but many fears he had been killed by the killer 100 team. At the same time this was going on, Sheikh Hasina’s government concocted false cases against top Jamat leaders and had them arrested one by one, eventually to face war crimes charges at the ICT. Among them was the popular Islamic scholar and a leader of Bangladeshi Jamati Islam Maulana Delwar Hussain Sayeedi.

It is well documented that Maulana Delwar Hussain Sayeedi only joined Bangladeshi Jamati Islam in 1973. He was also a member of parliament elected from a Hindu dominated constituency of Piroj Pur. In spite of his background and none relation with war crimes, he was framed by the investigators with some other persons crime which he had never committed. He was made to assume the name Delwar Sikdar, a man who had committed war crimes and had been executed by its captors soon after the independece. Maulana Delwar Hussain Sayeedi was made to become the dead man  Dilu Razakar.  

To be continued…