War crimes convict Abdul Alim, 83, was a Muslim League leader who became a state minister during Gen Ziaur Rahman’s regime.
A lawyer, Alim completed his LLB and master’s respectively in 1951 and 1953 from Dhaka University.
Alim was born on November 1, 1930 in Panduq, Hooghli, now in the Indian state of West Bengal. He completed his degree from Kolkata and later, his family migrated to the then East-Pakistan sometime in 1950-51 to settle in Joypurhat.
In 1958, he joined the Muslim League; by 1962 he became its divisional organising secretary and also served as the vice-chairman of Bogra district council. When the Convention Muslim League a faction supporting Ayub Khan’s military government was formed, he joined the party.
In 1971, during the Liberation War, Alim was an influential leader in Joypurhat who formed a Peace Committee and a razakar training camp, helping the Pakistani occupation army to commit atrocities against the Bangalee population.
According to a Daily Sangram report, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s publicity vehicle, on October 31, 1971, Alim was an uncontested winner in the by-election for the then Provincial Council.
Though imprisoned in 1974, he was released the next year. In 1975 and again in 1977, he was elected as Joypurhat’s municipality chairman, and in 1985 and 1990 he was the chairman of sadar upazila.
In 1978, even before formally joining the BNP, he was made state minister and was a cabinet member during the military regime of Gen Ziaur Rahman. He was elected as a member of parliament in 1979, 1996 and 2001.
In 2008, he did not take part in the elections as he was not given a party ticket, after he reportedly joined the BNP’s “reformist” faction the previous year; when he made derogatory comments about party chief Khaleda Zia he was expelled by BNP’s Joypurhat unit in August that year.
In prosecution documents and the judgement delivered against Alim on Wednesday, it was acknowledged that he was known for controlling the local “peace committees” in Joypurhat.
The judgement said: The Pakistan government and the military formed Peace Committee as an associate organisation just like the other auxiliary forces such as razakars, al-Badar and al-Shams. These teams were formed “essentially to act as a team with the Pakistani occupation army in identifying and eliminating all those who were perceived to be pro-liberation, individuals belonging to minority religious groups especially the Hindus, political groups belonging to Awami League and Bangalee intellectuals and unarmed civilian population of Bangladesh.”
According to the prosecution, during the war, Alim established an army camp, Peace Committee office and training centre for razakars. To provide accommodation for one Maj Afzal from Pakistan, Alim occupied the “godighar” (trading office) of a prominent Marwari jute trader Shaonlal Bajla, who was forced to abandon all his possessions and leave for India.
According to a defence petition, in January 1974 Alim was arrested on an emergency order under the Security Act but released in August, the next year. While one defence witness said Alim had been in hiding during the Liberation War, the third and last defence witness, his son Sazzad bin Alim said his father participated in the Language Movement and claimed in his deposition that his father did not form Peace Committees and was not involved with razakar forces in 1971.
