Bangladesh: JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI’S Mojaheed gets his due

The wheels of justice move on

JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI’S secretary general, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, has got his comeuppance. Given the magnitude of the crime he committed as the head of the al-Badr, a death squad with the mission to decimate Bengali intellectuals at the fag end of Liberation War in 1971, the capital punishment handed to Mojaheed by ICT-2 is fully justified. This is the sixth verdict in a series of convictions against persons tried for crimes against humanity in 1971. In the preceding verdicts, three got capital punishment, while two received jail terms. It’s a hallowed moment in the Bengali nation’s 42nd year of statehood that it has been able to extricate itself of yet another moral thorn in its side through this verdict. But we are dismayed at the unabashed arrogance with which Jamaat-e-Islami and its student front Shibir have been reacting through violence and mayhem to the ICT’s verdicts pronounced against these bitterest enemies of our war of independence and Bengali nationhood. The acts of vandalism and destruction perpetrated by Jamaat activists in the holy month of Ramadan during hartals since Monday have taken their huge toll on life and property. Until Tuesday, nine people died in hartal-related violence along with its attendant collateral damage. This is extremely reprehensible. They must feel remorse, behave and respect the people’s sentiment.