A former Pakistan military officer has termed the ongoing war crimes trial in Bangladesh a “sham.”
The retired military officer, Col M Hanif, claims that the killings, tortures, rapes and other human rights violations that may have taken place in 1971 were mainly the resutls of internal conflicts among Bangalee groups.
Hanif came up with the claim in a column published in the Pakistan Observer on Saturday.
The article titled “Sham trials in Bangladesh” also questioned the number of three million people having died and 200,000 women having been raped during Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971. He termed it a propaganda by the Awami League.
Hanif claims that Bangladesh is demanding trial of the former members of the Pakistan Army on the directive of India to tarnish Pakistan’s and its army’s international image and break up Pakistan and Bangladesh’s friendly relations.
Terming Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence an “Indian engineered separatist struggle,” Hanif says India also wants tense relations between the Awami League and the BNP as Bangladesh-Pakistan relations have been good in times of BNP governments.
He praises the BNP for claiming that the war crimes accused were not given the right of a fair trial. “Khaleda Zia, BNP Chairperson, has gone so far as to publicly reject the legitimacy of tribunals,” Hamid writes in his article.
Hamid, who works for the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, also claims that a fair trial is being denied to the accused by the Awami League government by amending rules and making International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973 too biased.
