Pro-AL lawyers demand ban on Jamaat
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday demanded that the government ban politics of Jamaat-e-Islami for their activities against the country and people during the 1971 Liberation War.
There is no example, in any country, of an organisation, which opposed the country's birth, being allowed to do politics after independence, he told a meeting at South Hall of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).
The ruling Awami League-backed lawyers of SCBA organised the meeting protesting against demands made by Khandker Mahbub Hossain, vice chairman of Bangladesh Bar Council, on February 9.
The demands were for dissolving the international crimes tribunals, which are trying people accused of committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, and formation of a tribunal under the United Nations.
Khandker, also an adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, claimed that neither the defence nor the government had confidence on the tribunals for those had become controversial.
He was addressing a seminar in the SCBA auditorium organised by National Forum for Protection of Human Rights, the general secretary of which is Tajul Islam, a defence lawyer at the tribunals.
Mahbubey Alam said those who make such demands should be tried.
He told The Daily Star that Jamaat-e-Islami should be tried as an organisation of war criminals and their political activities should be banned. The government can formulate a law for this purpose, he added.
Stating that the demand for dissolving the tribunals is tantamount to sedition, Abdul Baset Majumder said those who make statements on behalf of war criminals were themselves war criminals.
The meeting expressed solidarity with the Shahbagh protesters demanding death sentence for war criminals, and asked Khandker to apologise unconditionally.
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