International

PM vows to continue trial of war criminals

PM vows to continue trial of war criminals

December 31, 2011 | 12:00 AM

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaking at the annual general meeting of Bangla Academy in Dhaka yesterday after she and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen were made honorary fellows of the research organisation

By Mizan RahmanDhaka
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the trial of war criminals will go on and they will be brought under the trial process wherever and whenever they would be found.“The trail will take place whenever and wherever the war criminals will be found and this process will continue,” she said while addressing the annual general meeting of Bangla Academy held in Dhaka yesterday.Hasina said she can understand the reason behind the killings by the Pakistani occupation forces during the Liberation War. “They (Pakistani military) were just the slaves to their master, they just did what their master had asked them to do,” she said.“But”, she said, “It’s unfortunate when the sons of this soil joined the Pakistani military in committing murder, rape, loot and arson. With such evil and heinous activities, the Pakistan army’s collaborators the Rajakars, Al Badars and Al Shams blemished the whole nation.“How could they do this? Their trial must be held in this soil and that will be. Or else, the nation will not be free from the stigma.”Hasina said the nation has been bearing this stigma for the last 40 years and time has come to change this.After the Liberation War, Hasina said the trial process of the war criminals had started but after the killing of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, military dictators stopped that process.“That was not the end, they had been awarded citizenship and made ministers and MPs,” the prime minister lamented.She said the government will free the nation from this stigma by completing the trial process.

December 31, 2011 | 12:00 AM