Activists of Jubo Dal Friday set fire to an effigy of BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed near the Nayapaltan party office in protest against Moudud’s hint that Ziaur Rahman had decided Col Taher’s fate before the court martial.
Moudud gave the hint in one of his recent books titled “Democracy and the Challenge of Development: A study of Political and Military Interventions in Bangladesh.”
A few activists of Jubo Dal burned the BNP leader’s effigy – a placard reading “We want punishment of collaborator Moudud” attached to it – in front of the Scout Market adjacent to the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters Friday noon.
According to the latest verdict in Col Taher killing case, on pages 29-30 in his book Moudud – then a close associate of Zia – writes: “Why did Zia allow Taher to be hanged, the person who freed him from captivity?...The officers, who had not taken part in the Liberation War, had found a new ally in Zia after the killing of Mujib and removal of Mushtaque. They needed each other to survive both as a class and a force in the civil-military structure of the country. When it came to sentencing Taher, the repatriated officers wanted him hanged. Out of the 46 senior army officers summoned by Zia to discuss the issue, all were in favour of this ultimate and final form of punishment.”
