The freedom fighter who was assaulted Friday by Shibir cadres for demanding the trial of Jamaat leaders responsible for war crimes during the liberation war filed a general diary (GD) yesterday. Sheikh Mohammad Ali Aman, the war veteran, filed the GD with Ramna Police Station on charges of beating and keeping him confined. Police registered the GD as a case following investigation.Meantime, the Sector Commanders' Forum (SCF) threatened to go for nationwide protests if the government balks at bringing the Jamaat and Shibir men responsible for the attack on Ali Aman to trial. "If the government does not take immediate steps to identify and try the people responsible, we'll go for movement along with all other patriotic people," SCF President Air Vice Marshal (retd) AK Khandker said at a press briefing in Dhanmondi yesterday. "The war criminals were involved in killing hundreds of thousands of people during our liberation war; now they're assembling using the banner Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad," he said. "If the government does not act to probe into the incident and punish the offenders accordingly, we'll know for sure that the administration is biased towards the Jamaat," he said.
SCF chief coordinator Lt Gen (retd) Harun-ar-Rashid said the government has got to try the attackers, adding that humiliating a freedom fighter amounts to disgracing the whole nation. The freedom fighters will stage nationwide protests if the offenders are not arrested and given exemplary punishment, he said.
Freedom fighter Aman, who was present at the press conference, said, "I went to the Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad meeting in the hope of meeting other freedom fighters, not knowing that it was actually a Jamaat-backed front." He said he and a few other freedom fighters left the venue soon after the organisers showed their true colours by demanding the trial of sector commanders. "Some people began kicking me as I demanded trial of war criminals in an interview outside the meeting venue," he said, adding that the attackers had kept him confined in a room for about three hours.