The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

A murder case was filed yesterday against Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and 11 others of the party accusing them of murdering three freedom fighters in Keraniganj during the War of Liberation in 1971.

Mozaffar Ahmed Khan, a residence of Bhawalkhanbari and Keraniganj unit commander of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad, filed the case with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court, Dhaka in the morning accusing the Jamaat leaders of murdering three freedom fighters in Keraniganj on November 25, 1971.

After hearing the petitioner, judicial magistrate Ashiqul Khabir at 4:30pm accepted the case and issued an order directing officer-in-charge of Keraniganj Police Station to record the case as FIR and take action in accordance with the law.

Others accused in the case are Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan

Mohammad Mujahid, assistant secretary general Abdul Kader Molla and Mohammad Qamaruzzaman, Keraniganj thana ameer Haji Nazimuddin. Dhaka district ameer Abul Hashem, Faizur Rahman Faiz, KG Karim Babla, Mohammad Yasin, Dr Joynal, Abdul Khaleque (posthumous), Abdul Mannan Siddiqi (posthumous) and Puinya Albadar (posthumous).

Jamaat-e-Islami leaders could not be contacted immediately for comment on the case, which was filed a day after the country celebrated the 36th anniversary of independence on Sunday, amid calls for war crimes trials.

The petitioner said the accused at the behest of General Tikka Khan of the Pakistan occupation force formed Rajakar, Al-badr and Al-shams bahinis and declared war against the Mujibnagar government of Bangladesh on April 17, 1971.

He further submitted that the Jamaat leaders and their associates numbering 60 or 70 picked up freedom fighters Golam Mostofa and Osman Ghani from their Keraniganj homes at about 7:30am on November 25, 1971. They were brutally bayoneted and shot dead in broad daylight at about 8:30am the same day. The brutal killings were planned at a camp of Al Badr at Mohammadpur in the city.

'My paternal uncle and two of his freedom fighter sons were killed by the cadres of Nizami and Mujahid at Keraniganj, near Dhaka,' complainant Mozaffar Ahmed Khan told reporters.

The petitioner said Jamaat leaders had not stopped there. They had

killed scores of people, set fire to houses and plundered residences

in carrying out horrendous atrocities in the area.

"Since the governments in the last 36 years did not take any step against the accused, I have decided to file the case finding no other alternatives against the killers," the petitioner said.

In the wake of rising demand for trial of Jamaat leaders as war criminal an attempt last week to hook Mujahid, Kader Molla and former NBR chairman Shah Abdul Hannan in sedition case ended in a failure.

The court had sent the case to police for action but they returned without registering the case saying individuals required prior permission of the government for filing sedition case, But the permission was not available.