Banglapedia, the only encyclopaedia on Bangladesh, totally evades information on Jamaat-e-Islami’s anti-liberation role and active participation with the Pakistan occupation forces in committing crimes against humanity during the nine-month-long War of Independence in 1971.
The one-page article incorporates Jamaat’s history from the period of undivided India to the organisation’s structural changes following the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
But, the entry – available online at http://www.banglapedia.org/HT/ J_0043.HTM – does not use a single word to record the Islamist party’s role in the crimes against humanity in 1971.
Banglapedia is published by the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh and is managed by a 17-member council. The article on Jamaat is written by FM Mostafizur Rahman, editor of Shilpa Barta.
Prof Nazrul Islam, the chairman of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, admitted the inadequacy of information, but said: “Inclusion of any sensitive information in Banglapedia involves official position.
“We can now update the article on Jamaat as the International Crimes Tribunal has already identified the party committing crimes against humanity. The next edition of Banglapedia will contain Jamaat’s involvement with the war crimes.”
The article says: “After the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, Jamaat-e-Islami was banned in view of the adoption of secularism as state policy.
“In 1976, when the Islamic Democratic League (IDL) led by Mawlana Abdur Rahim obtained permission from the government, the Jamaat activists began to operate under the banner of IDL. Some Jamaat leaders even contested in the general elections of 1979 as nominees of the Democratic League, and six of them were elected,” it reads.
“In 1979, the ban on religion-based political parties was withdrawn, and thus Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh was revived.”
The article contains development in relation to Jamaat’s activity up to 2001 although it was posted in 2003 when Banglapedia was first printed.
While delivering the judgment of war criminal Ghulam Azam on Monday, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir observed that the three-member tribunal had faced scarcity of books and documents on Bangladesh’s war of independence.
They had to depend mainly on newspaper reports on massacres and human rights violation and the persons behind those incidents.
The tribunal, which sentenced Ghulam Azam to 90 years in prison, in its observation said Jamaat-e-Islami actively took part in the pogrom of three million people during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
Jamaat lost political rights for its role of collaborating with the Pakistani occupation forces by forming auxiliary forces such as razakar, al-Badr, al-Shams, peace committees and others that used to identify and eliminate targets – freedom fighters, intellectuals, women and Hindus.
Dr Ahmed Jamal, general secretary of the Asiatic Society, said “mistakes” in encyclopaedia was usual. The Encyclopaedia Britannica was published 250 years ago, but mistakes were still detected very often, he said.
“We will update the online version of Banglapedia as early as possible,” Jamal told the Dhaka Tribune.
