European Union parliament has adopted a resolution, urging the BNP to distance itself from Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam, while emphasising shunning any political violence in Bangladesh and an urgent consensus between the major parties here.
Put forward by six political groups, the resolution also called on the Bangladesh government to halt repressive acts and release any held opposition politicians.
Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly urged the BNP to sever ties with the Jamaat, which wanted to foil the birth of Bangladesh as an independent nation in 1971 by collaborating with the Pakistani occupation army that killed three million Bangalees and raped a quarter million women.
Jamaat and Its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir are widely blamed for killing policemen, ordinary people and activists of other parties, including the Awami League, in recent years.
This is the first time that a group of foreign politicians has come up with a call to the BNP for severing ties with communal forces such as Jamaat and Hefazat.
The EU parliament stressed that “parties which turn to terrorist acts should be banned.”
“[It] urges the BNP to unequivocally distance itself from Jamaat-e-Islami and Hafezat-e-Islam,” the resolution said.
It said in the interest of Bangladesh’s future, parties having a democratic reputation needed to develop a culture of mutual respect.
The BNP has maintained an alliance with Islamist political party Jamaat for more than a decade, calling it a “strategic partner.”
In recent times, the BNP also tried to use Hefazat to topple the government.
The EU parliament regretted that the political parties in Bangladesh could not agree on an inclusive mechanism for an election. It said it believed that all options should be considered, including an early election if all legitimate political parties were willing to stand and offer voters a choice.
“[It] strongly condemns the killings and widespread violence which erupted throughout the country in the run-up to and during the January 2014 elections, especially attacks on religious and cultural minorities and other vulnerable groups,” the resolution said.
The EU parliament called on the government to immediately halt all repressive methods used by the security forces, including indiscriminate firing with live ammunition and torture in custody.
The EU parliament urged that “prompt, independent and transparent investigations be carried out into the recent cases of violent deaths before and after the elections, and that the perpetrators, including those in the security services, be brought to justice.”
War Crimes Trial
The EU parliament acknowledged that the International Crimes Tribunal had played an important role in providing redress and closure for the victims of and those affected by Bangladesh’s war of independence.
It, however, expressed concern at the increasing number of people on death row in Bangladesh as the tribunal had pronounced death sentences of six individuals and at the sentencing to death of 152 soldiers over the bloody mutiny in the erstwhile BDR in 2009.
“[It] calls on the government and the parliament to abolish the death penalty and to commute all death sentences; calls also on the authorities to urgently set up an effective mechanism to protect witnesses in cases before the [war crimes tribunal].”
The EU parliament also called on the government “to revise the Information and Communication Technology Act and the Anti-Terrorism Act, which were made more stringent under the last government and can lead to the arbitrary criminalisation of citizens.”