Lahore-based newspaper the Pakistan Today is yet to correct or withdraw a news item published on its website two months ago which mentioned BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia as the mother of war crimes convict Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
Since the paper ran the report on August 6 until on Thursday afternoon, as many as 69 people commented on the piece, asking the authorities to correct the fact. The report went viral on social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, soon after its publication, with the followers treating it as a fun piece.
The article drew attention again after Salauddin Quader’s death sentence had been pronounced on Tuesday.
The report headlined “Statements filed before Bangladesh war crime tribunal” says: "[Salauddin Quader] Chaudhry is son of former united National Assembly speaker Fazlur Qadir Chaudhry and Bangladeshi opposition leader Khalida Zia.”
The cinvict's father, Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, was a Convention Muslim League leader.
The report stated that six Pakistanis – former caretaker chief Muhammad Mian Soomro, former federal minister Ishaq Khan Khaqani, the owner of an English newspaper and three others – submitted statements to the tribunal claiming that Salauddin Quader had been studying at Punjab University in Lahore and had no connection with the war crimes whatsoever. They, however, did not mention the time of his stay specifically.
According to the charges brought by the prosecution against the BNP leader, he was involved in genocide, murder and torture in Chittagong between April 5 and September 2 in 1971.
Sentencing Salauddin Quader to death on four charges and jail on five, the International Crimes Tribunal 1 said it was proved that he had been in Chittagong during the war, left for Pakistan in September that year and returned in 1974.