GS Paper - II

Bangladesh’s interim government lifted the ban on the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, paving the way for its return to active politics. The Sheikh Hasina government had cracked down on the Jamaat for being a “militant and terrorist” organisation, and hanged or imprisoned many of its top leaders for “war crimes” committed during the 1971 Liberation War.

The Jamaat was barred from contesting elections in 2013 on the ground that its charter violated Bangladesh’s constitution by “opposing secularism”.

Largest Islamist party

• The Jamaat says it wants to “safeguard the independence, territorial sovereignty and Islamic values of Bangladesh”, and “implement the Islamic code of life… with a view to turning Bangladesh into an Islamic welfare state…”.
• Bangladesh’s “largest Islamic party” traces its roots to the Jamaat-e-Islami established in Lahore in 1941 by Islamic theologian Abul Ala Maududi.
• Its foundational goal was to promote Islamic values in India, and eventually establish an unified Islamic state in the subcontinent.

Bangladesh politics

• The Partition — which the Jamaat actively opposed — dashed its original plans. After 1947, the organisation split on country lines.
• In India, the Jamaat was largely relegated to political irrelevance, but its influence grew in both wings of Pakistan.

Role in Liberation War

• While India was partitioned on religious lines, Pakistan struggled to hold together its geographically separated and culturally dissimilar East and West.
• Soon, the Bengali-speaking people in the East rebelled against the dominance of the Urdu-speaking West Pakistani elite, and started to demand first greater autonomy, and eventually a separate country.
• Jamaat, with its goal of keeping Muslims together, opposed the partition of Pakistan, and stood firmly with the (West) Pakistani establishment.
• It provided leadership and manpower to paramilitary organisations and committees established by the Pakistan Army to crush the freedom struggle.
• These included the Al Shams and Al Badr armed groups, which were recruited from the Jamaat’s student wing, and the East Pakistan Central Peace Committee, also known as the Shanti Committee. Ghulam Azam, then leader of the Jamaat in East Pakistan, was one of the founding members of the Shanti Committee.

Crackdown by Hasina

• The Jamaat had been rehabilitated during the Khaleda years, but its role during the Liberation War was not forgotten.
• After coming to power in late 2008, Hasina announced that she would use the 1973 Act to prosecute war criminals. This Act would be amended in 2009, and its ambit expanded.
• On 25 March 2010, Hasina’s government announced the formation of a three-member tribunal, a seven-member investigation agency, and a twelve-member prosecution team to prosecute war criminals.
• On 5 February 2013, Abdul Quader Mollah, who was a member of the Al Badr militia in 1971, was convicted of killing 344 civilians among other war crimes, and sentenced to life in prison. Following massive protests against the “lenient” punishment, the Bangladesh Supreme Court handed Mollah the death sentence.
• He was executed on 12 December 2013 — the first Jamaat leader to be hanged for war crimes.