Renowned freedom fighter Kader Siddiqui on Friday said Amar Desh head Mahmudur Rahman should get a Nobel prize for publishing transcripts of an alleged Skype conversation between former war crimes tribunal chief and an expat legal expert.
Siddiqui, who formed a small party, Krishak Sramik Janata League after parting ways with the ruling Awami League, said at a discussion at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, “Mahmudur Rahman has done a terrific job.”
He said referring to the head of the BNP-leaning daily newspaper, “He should be given the Nobel prize. But instead people are plotting to put him in jail.”
A former energy advisor in the previous 2001-06 BNP government, Mahmudur Rahman’s Bengali daily has been a source of controversy over former Chairman of International Crimes Tribunal – 1 Justice Mohammad Nizamul Huq and a Brussels-based legal expert Ahmed Ziauddin, who is said to be an old acquaintance of the judge.
Justice Huq resigned from his position on Dec 11 after Amar Desh published a series of what it claimed was transcripts of a supposed conversation that the judge had had.
The matter first came to light through an order of Justice Huq himself on Dec 6 and the pro-BNP daily began publishing the transcripts two days later.
Many have also questioned the subsequent publication of the transcripts saying it was a breach of Justice Huq’s privacy.
On Dec 13, a case was also filed with a Dhaka court against Mahmudur Rahman and Amar Desh publisher Hasmat Ali charging them with sedition for publishing the alleged Skype conversation.
The second war crimes tribunal, however, same day barred the media from publishing or broadcasting anything related to the conversation.
Kader Siddiqui, who has been facing harsh criticism from the freedom fighters for anchoring a talk show on Diganta Television, a Jamaat-e-Islami-leaning private TV channel, on Friday also asked the ruling Awami League-led government to think about the future.
“He [Rahman] was sent to jail once for 19 months. It may happen again, but what will happen when the table turns after 10 months,” he said.
At the open discussion at the DRU, Siddiqui also demanded resignation of Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir over the murder of Biswajit Das in Old Dhaka on Dec 9 during the BNP-enforced road blockade programme.
Siddiqui, a freedom fighter who received the Bir Uttam gallantry award said, “He [Alamgir] is the minister of police and RAB, not of Juba League or Chhatra League. The murder took place because of his call to obstruct Jamaat and Shibir [Jamaat’s student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir].”
He also criticised the Home Minister for his remarks over the shutdown enforced by the Communist Party of Bangladesh and the Socialist Party of Bangladesh to press for a ban on all ‘religion-based parties’ including Jamaat, a key ally to main opposition BNP.
“What kind of a person has become the Home Minister who thanks even those who observe strikes and also asks people to learn from them how to observe a strike?”
The Krishak Sramik Janata League President also said he believed former Communication Minister Syed Abul Hossain and former State Minister for Foreign Affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury were ‘innocent’ with regard to the corruption allegations in the Padma bridge project.
He said, “There would not have any problems in constructing the Padma bridge if the work was done following World Bank’s directions. A conspiracy was hatched in this case.”
He stressed the duo should file a Tk 10-billion defamation suit against those newspapers which were referring to them as ‘two Abuls’ and the people who were holding them guilty.
About the trials of the war criminals of the 1971 Liberation War, Siddiqui said addressing the government, “Try the war criminals properly and also try those who are in your family.”
“People talk if I do not join human chain programmes demanding trial of the war criminals. Can the war criminals be tried through human chain programmes? It works only in a gentleman’s country, not here. And the government has already branded me a war criminal,” said Siddiqui, who was once known as Tiger Siddiqui.
Brac University teacher Pias Karim at the discussion disagreed with the demand of the Leftist parties to ban all religion-based political parties.
He said, “The Jamaat-e-Islami is not a person-based political party like Awami League or BNP. There is no doubt that the party’s role was controversial during the Liberation War. But 80 percent of the party’s activists are of the generation after the war. They do not even have any memory of that time.”
The Jamaat-e-Islami had allegedly collaborated with the Pakistan army during the War of Independence in 1971. The party’s top nine leaders are currently facing trial at the two International Crimes Tribunals for crimes committed against humanity during the war.
Source: Bd News24