War criminals
I believe the time has come to have a lively and frank discussion to understand the meaning of war criminal. I understand the feeling of fellow citizens clamouring for trial of war criminals, and I am all for it. But, what constitutes war criminality?
Who could be a war criminal? Today I see a news item, which states a number on war criminals who could be tried (12,000).
This is a ridiculous number. There are war criminals and there are War Criminals. You just cannot go and find out every Razakar, Al-Badr, members of the Peace Committee and brand them war criminals.
War criminals are those who hatched the plan of systematic killings, executed the planned killings of intellectuals, or planned to kill a certain section of people, whether on religious, political or nationality ground.
Those who planned and ordered the mass killings, those who ordered the intellectuals' killings, those who planned to uproot Hindus, and annihilate them, those who planned a shock-and-awe killing of Bengalis to suppress them for life, are the real War Criminals.
Yahya, Bhutto, Tikka Khan, Rao Forman Ali, and their Bengali cohorts, a few top Jamaat Leaders, and a few top Islami Chhatra Shibir leaders should be tried as War Criminals. Rest of them were doing a cameo part on the big schema. Even Bangabandhu pardoned those bit players for the sake of national unity. So, go for the big fish, and try and fry them. For the rest, please do not try to put another wedge between people.
We need to heal our wounds, we need to move forward, we need to make sure that our people prosper, and next generation has hopes, ways, means, and ambitions.
We're tired of being called Indian agents, we're tired of being called pro-Pakistani, we're tired of calling each other non-patriotic, non-religious and so on.
It is time to move on.
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