Bangladeshi Terrorist Quader Mollah and Pakistan

By Mohshin Habib

The government of Pakistan actually holds the patrimony, including the genocide and crimes against humanity committed during Bangladesh war of independence, under its tunic.

On December 16, the Victory Day of Bangladesh (Pakistan observes the day as "the fall of Dhaka"), Pakistan's National Assembly passed a resolution condemning the hanging of the Abul Quader Mollah. The resolution said: "This House expresses serious concern over the execution of 65-year-old Jamaat-e-Islam leader Abdul Qadir Molla only for siding with Pakistan in 1971 and condoles with Jamaat-e-Islam Bangladesh and the family of the deceased... This House demands from the government of Bangladesh not to give new life to matters of 1971 and close all the cases against the leadership of JI in Bangladesh." The resolution was moved by Jamaat-e-Islam leader Sher Akbar Khan and endorsed by the ruling PML-N and Tehrik-e-Insaaf of Imran Khan .

Before adopting the resolution, Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhury Nisar Ali Khan, labelled Bangladeshi court verdict as "judicial murder".

On the other hand, we had started to think that Pakistan was preparing to express contrition for the wrong-doing by their predecessors. We were charmed by Syed Haider Farook's statement as he remarked during his Dhaka visit that Jamaat should not be allowed to do politics in Bangladesh. Farook is the son of Jamaat founder Abu Ala Maududi. We were really glad to hear voices like Raja Hassan Raja, Hamid Mir and a few other Pakistani intellectuals and civil rights activists who demanded of their government to apologise to Bangladesh for the genocide and atrocities its army committed in Bangladesh in 1971. Even General Pervez Musharraf, the former president of Pakistan, during his Bangladesh visit in August 2002 wrote in the official visitors' book at Savar National Memorial: "Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pains of the event of 1971. The excesses committed during the unfortunate period are regrettable." The celebrity cricketer Imran Khan once said, "Pakistan should apologise to Bangladesh for atrocities during 1971."

But it now seems that we were wrong. The government of Pakistan actually holds the patrimony, including the genocide and crimes against humanity committed during Bangladesh war of independence, under its tunic.

Secondly, the new generation of Bangladesh has learnt from Pakistan's action that recognising Mollah by the resolution means, yes, Mollah was indeed a collaborator of the Pakistan occupation forces. It debunks the cliam of Jamaat supporters that Quader Mollah was not the same guy who was known as Koshai (Butcher) Quader, who took part in the massacre. Moreover, the people of Bangladesh are now convinced that the relations between Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan have been uninterrupted.

Yes, there are some countries which expressed their reservations about the procedure of trial at the International War Crimes Tribunal. Most of these countries have rermoved execution from their judiciaries. But Pakistan is not in a position to pass a resolution against Bangladesh on humanitarian ground. Pakistan still upholds its notorious blasphemy law, introduced by General Ziaul Haq decades ago. Zia introduced blasphemy laws under section 295b, 295c, 298b and 298c of the Pakistani Penal Code (PPC). According to Asian Human Rights Commission, more than 1000 people have been charged in Pakistan for committing offences against blasphemy laws. Among them are young, old and children! Report mentioned that since 1990, 52 people have been extra-judicially murdered for being implicated in blasphemy charges. There are reports that at least half a dozen Christians, including women, are now on death row in Pakistani prisons. These people were never violent; they are just accused of orally hurting Pakistani sentiment.