[Bangla Daily Star] Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami... a Pakistani catspaw remaining active in Bangla politix, loosely affiliated with the Pak religious party of the same name and closely affiliated with most of the terror organizations in Bangla. A member of the BNP's four party governing coalition....
Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed yesterday said he regrets his anti-liberation role in 1971 and explained that it was played "out of emotion", said the agency probing war crimes.
The Jamaat leader made the statement during a daylong interrogation by the investigation agency at a "safe home" at the capital's Dhanmondi.
He, however, denied his involvement in killing and other crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
Jamaat-e-Islami, an anti-liberation force, remains unremorseful and unapologetic till date for its misdeeds of that time.
Mojaheed in November 2007 claimed that Jamaat never worked against the independence and there is no such thing as war criminals in the country. "In fact, anti-liberation forces never even existed," said the Jamaat leader.
The investigation agency said they would again appeal to the International Crimes Tribunal for permission to quiz Mojaheed as he yesterday avoided several significant queries on his anti-liberation role.
The investigation team got some significant information from him [Mojaheed], said M Sanaul Huq of the five-member team after the interrogation ended at 5:15pm.
Talking to news hounds, Huq, however, declined to disclose further information.
Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard...
Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and Nayeb-e-Ameer Delawar Hossain Sayedee yesterday in separate petitions pleaded with the court not to interrogate them in connection with war crimes charges anymore.
Talking to The Daily Star, a member of the investigation agency on condition of anonymity said the Jamaat leader admitted that genocide and other atrocities took place during the Liberation War.
Mojaheed said he was in Dhaka during the war time and was also a leader of Islami Chhatro Sangho. But he denied his involvement with auxiliary forces of Pak occupation army.
"When we showed books of different Pak general where his name is mentioned as Al-Badr leader, he avoided the issue," said another member of the investigation team.
He was also shown newspaper clippings of daily Sangram, mouthpiece of Jamaat, which quoted his speeches identifying him as an Al-Badr leader. He questioned the authenticity of such news and declined to comment on the matter, said the investigation member.
Like Nizami, Mojaheed also said Pak occupation army threatened him not to go against them.
Asked whether his reply was satisfactory, Sanaul Huq said, "We accepted some of his replies." But Huq did not elaborate.
Mojaheed's counsel Ahsan Kabir, who was in a room adjacent to the interrogation room, told news hounds that his client did not say anything about his involvement with Al-Badr or his role in 1971.
He, however, said the investigation team did not threat or pressurise the Jamaat leader into giving any statement.