THE REVOLT: The Real History of Jamaat

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A nation has been waiting for justice for 42 years. Justice for what was done to the people of Bangladsh in 1971. Hundreds of thousands of people who fought for the country’s liberation are alive today. Their children and even their grandchildren now know the glorious history of the freedom fighters. What is painful is that the enemies of the freedom fighters continue to act as a major political force in Bangladesh, ravaging universities, vandalising vehicles and strengthening their hold on the ground.

Many of the intellectuals of Bangladesh, including prominent writer Mohammad Zafar Iqbal, used to comment that young people of Bangladesh do nothing except click ‘like’ on facebook. Since Shahbag, they have withdrawn their comments. For the youth proved them all very wrong when Quader Mollah, assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami and a war criminal, showed the ‘V’ sign. That very little but very significant moment started rolling a stone that gathered moss for 42 years. First, a few bloggers and facebook activists took to the streets and occupied Shahbag, one of the busiest intersections of the capital. Within a few hours, became a gathering so huge that Bangladesh had not seen in decades.

Background

Abdul Quader Mollah is widely known as ‘Butcher Quader’ for the brutal killings and atrocities committed during the liberation war in 1971. On 5 Feb 2013, he was given a life sentence by the International Crimes Tribunal. The proven charges against him are:

1. Complicity in the murder of Pallab on 5 April 1971. On Mollah's instructions, one of Mollah’s aides named killed Pallab, a student of Bangla College and an organiser of the Liberation War.

2. Complicity in the murder of poet Meherunnesa and her family in Mirpur on 27 March 1971. Mollah and his aides murdered pro-liberation poet Meherun Nesa, her mother and two brothers at their home at Mirpur-6, Dhaka.

3. Complicity in the murder of Journalist Abu Taleb on 29 March 1971. Mollah, accompanied by Al-Badr, Razakars and others, apprehended journalist Khondoker Abu Taleb and brought him to a place known as Mirpur Jallad Khana Pump House. There they slit his throat.

5. Direct involvement in the murders of 344 people in village Alokdi, Mirpur on 24 April 1971.

6. Direct involvement in the murders of Hajrat Ali and his family and rape of a 11 year old minor on 26 March 1971.^[1]

4. The tribunal, however, acquitted Quader of the fourth charge of attending a ‘conspiracy meeting’ on the night of November 23, 1971 and committing murders at Ghatarchar under Keraniganj in Dhaka district on November 25, 1971. The tribunal said, the prosecution could not prove the charge.

Following the proof of the brutal murders and rape the judge pronounced in a crowded courtroom: “He (Mollah) be convicted and condemned to a single sentence of 'imprisonment for life’.” Despite knowing that he might have to live the rest of his life in prison, Mollah stood up immediately and showed victory “V” sign to the people present at the courtroom. It was a sign that shows who the victor was at court that day.

Why the judge issued such a verdict is another matter. Let’s see some other facts in brief that need to be outlined 1) Who are the war criminals? 2) What is Jamaat-e-Islami and what was the role of this organisation in 1971? 3) What is Jamaat-e-Islami doing now?

Beginning on 25 March at least 3 million unarmed people were killed by the Pakistani forces in 1971. Follwing months of war on 16 December the Indian and Bangladeshi joint force arrested 93,000 Pakistani army personnel and handed them unharmed to the Pakistani government. Despite repeated calls from Bangladesh, the Pakistani government is yet to formally apologize for its actions in 1971. In the 2008 national elections, Bangladesh Awami League declared in its election manifesto that it will bring to justice the local Bangladeshi collaborators who helped the Pakistani forces destroy the country. It is widely known that these collaborators were involved in murders, rapes, arson, looting and so on. The people of Bangladesh elected the Awali League and gave them a mandate to bring the war criminals to long-awaited justice. This was how the trials began. Most of the accused are leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, a political party which was against the the very formation of an independent Bangladesh. Most of its top leaders, present and past, are being tried for their involvement in war crimes.

History Of Jamaat (From Formation to the Independence of Bangladesh)

Jamaat is a party that changes its colours with the season. Below is a detailed list of its deceitful conduct from before establishment of Pakistan to the creation of Bangladesh.

· Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JI) was formally established on 26 August 1941. The intellectual inspiration of JI came from the thoughts of Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi, a journalist, theologian and political thinker. At formation visions of the organisation were (i) pan-Islamist in nature (Islamic state without boundary) (ii) to transcend national boundaries to encompass all peoples and countries (iii) become the moral guardians of Pakistan: a holy community that did not dirty its hands in the mud of political wrangling.”

· Maududi vehemently rejected the creation of an independent state for Muslims and suggested that the new country Pakistani should be named as Napak-istan [19]. In Maududi’s own words “The establishment and birth of Pakistan is equivalent to the birth of a beast.” Maududi declared that “Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s place is not on the throne of leadership. He deserves to face trial as a traitor.” After years of strong opposition towards the creation of Pakistan, denouncing Jinnah as a religious lightweight and decrying democracy as Satan’s handiwork, Maududi made an astonishing mauevre by embracing Pakistan, Jinnah and democracy in 1948. This is when he moved from India to Pakistan.

· Maududi portrayed Jamaat as “the moral guardians of Pakistan: a holy community that did not dirty its hands in the mud of political wrangling.” JI initially limited its role in Pakistan to the spread of the message of Islam and social work for the refugees who had migrated from India during the partition. However the party’s initial position changed before long and Jammaat-i-Islami initiated a campaign to establish an Islamic state and involved itself in the parliamentary politics of the country.

· During the partition of India, princely states were given the right to choose to side with either India or Pakistan. Kashmir, a princely state, with a majority Muslim population was expected to join Pakistan but the Hindu Maharaja of the state decided it would accede with India. Pakistan, in response, declared jihad (holy war) against the Indian army in the territory. Maududi, a scholar on the subject of jihad, disagreed with the Pakistani government on terming the war a jihad and went on to make his criticism public. As a result he was arrested along with other Jamaat leaders.

· Maududi began working to build an Islamic state and society. He relentlessly criticized the secular policies of the nascent state and berated Pakistani leaders for failing to create an Islamic political order. In 1953, Maulana Maududi wrote a staunch pamphlet which criticized the Qadiyani sect as enemies of Islam and incited people against them. The pamphlet resulted in widespread riots and violence against this minority group. Numerous murders and widespread rape was reported as part of this violence. Identifying Maududi as the primary force instigating the riot a military court arrested him, sentencing him to death for sedition. Later the punishment was reduced to life imprisonment and finally he was released from jail after changes in the Pakistani political spectrum in 1957.

· Initially Jammat was against participating in any democratic process in Pakistan, which they declared as a ‘non-Islamic’ country. It would have been hypocritical for them to participate in Pakistani elections as democracy was in contrast to their basic philosophy. Instead of directly participating in elections, Jamaat instead started supporting influential Islamic leaders and tried to gain influence in the government through their support.

· In 1957, there came a drastic shift in their policy as Jamaat decided to directly participate in a national election. From the bottom-up approach of changing individuals to bring changes in the society, Jamaat-I-Islami changed to a top-down approach of power sharing in a democratic government. Through this revised approach they sought to infuse social and individual change from a position of governance.

· Before the JI could make its debut in Pakistani parliamentary politics, General Ayub Khan led a military coup in Pakistan. Khan was seen as a secular figure who intended to keep religion separate from politics. In order to make Pakistan into a modern state, he introduced new Muslim family laws in 1961. These laws abolished unmitigated polygamy, gave powers to women by making it compulsory for husbands to seek their wives consent for a second marriage and abolished the practice whereby a husband could divorce his wife by saying talaq (divorce) three times. Seen as progressive changes in contrast to the traditional practises of Islam, JI strongly opposed these laws and tried to put pressure on Khan to repeal them.

· On 4 January 1964, Jamaat was banned for opposing the Muslim family laws. Maududi, along with 60 other Jamaat leaders were arrested. Golam Azam was one of 12 East Pakistani Jamaat leaders amongst the arrested. However the ban on Jamaat was lifted in October that year.

· While JI opposed Ayub Khan on the issue of womens empowerment, in 1965 JI supported Fatima Jinnah for her presidential campaign against Ayub Khan even though it was against Maududi’s views on the social role of women [5]. However due to massive vote rigging Fatima Jinnah lost the 1965 election and General Ayub Khan managed to stay in power.

· Towards the end of 1965, war broke out between India and Pakistan. Ayub Khan appealed to Maududi to declare jihad against India in order to legitimize the actions of the Pakistani army and to raise the morale of its soldiers. Maududi was widely considered to be a scholar in jihad and despite his vehement opposion to General Ayub, agreed to this proposition. This meeting between Ayub Khan and religious parties, mainly the Jamaat-i-Islami under Maulana ‘Abul ‘Ala Maududi, marked the beginning of “the military-mullah nexus.”

· When general Yahya Khan, another secular and brutal military leader, took power in 1969, Jamaat went so far as to certify Yahya’s draft constitution as Islamic. The draft was authored by Justice A.R. Cornelius, Yahya’s law minister.

· In 1970 the time finally came for JI to test its political strength. Ayub’s successor Yahya Khan held general elections in 1970 in which Jamaat-i-Islami took part for the first time. The campaigned as a religious party and sought votes by declaring that God (Allah) will be pleased if you voted for Jamaat. They expected that deeply religious people of the country would deliver them a substantial presence in the government. Contrary to their high hopes, Jamaat received an embarrassing election result winning only 4 out of the 300 seats in the national assembly.

· In 1971, General Yahya along with the civilian politician Bhutto planned one of the worst genocides of the 20th century in Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan). Jamaat supported and openly aided the Pakistan military in carrying out a genocide of unthinkable magnitude in the name of religion. The horrific attrocities of the Pakistani Army and Jamaat-i-Islami in the 1953 riots, killings and rapes led to the sentencing of Maududi to death.

· The results of the 1970 elections and defeat in the 1971 war in Bangladesh dejected Maududi and forced him to return to his original vision of the party where JI existed only as a holy community, in a domain separate from party politics.

· On 20th December 1971, General Yahya stepped down as the president and Bhutto took charge. He remained as martial law administrator till 14 August 1973. On 15 August Bhutto took the oath as Prime Minister of Pakistan under the newly promulgated 1973 constitution. On April 1, 1976, in a surprise move the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, appointed Zia-ul-Haq as Chief of Army Staff, superseding five senior Generals. Bhutto probably wanted somebody as the head of the armed forces who would not prove to be a threat for him, and the best available option was the simple General who was apparently interested only in offering prayers and playing golf.

· However, history proved that General Zia-ul-Haq proved to be much smarter than Bhutto thought. When political tension reached its climax due to the deadlock between Bhutto and the leadership of Pakistan National Alliance on the issue of general elections, Zia-ul-Haq took advantage of the situation. On July 5, 1977, he carried out a bloodless coup overthrowing Bhutto’s government and enforced Martial Law in the country. At this time Jamaat-i-Islami hoped to become a player in national politics once again and extended their full support to Zia. Maududi supported Zia-ul-Haq and he was appointed as a senior statesman during Zia’s rule.

· Bhutto was controversially tried and executed by the Supreme Court less than two years later, for authorising the murder of a political opponent. Zia- ul-Haq met JI Chief Mian Tufail Mohammad for 90 minutes the night before Bhutto was hanged. The following day, JI supporters took to the streets and distributed sweets to celebrate Bhutto’s death. While the constitution of JI prohibits coming to power using underground means, JI was part of Zia’s cabinet holding the Ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Production, Water and Power and National Resources.

· Dr. Haider Maudoodi, the son of Maulana Maudoodi, has openly denounced the actions of Jamaat-i-Islami his father formed and a Jamaat today that is following the earlier example to the letter. He stated in The Nation on 1/27/99 that his father was like a heroin peddler who would not allow his children to go near the drug. They never discussed Jihad at home, but he sold this idea to millions of others. Maududi never allowed any of his children to read any of his 80 books. While Jamaat-i-Islami was encouraging an uprising by Kashmiris against the government, Haider Maudoodi stated that “Islam does not allow them taking up arms against the State.” Furthermore he praised Pakistanis for not allowing religious extremists like the members of Jamaat-i-Islami to attain many seats in the National Assembly of Pakistan. “My father thought he could only use the people who came to him. But in his old age, he did get a taste of his medicine. When he was on his deathbed, these Maulana’s treated him as dirt”.

· Haider Maududi also described in detail how Jamaat-e-islami conducted massive destruction and slaughtered innocent people and rape of women by creating organizations such as Razakar, Al Badar etc. ^[2]
[3]

The history of Jamaat-e-Islami clearly shows that it keeps doing the same things: It was always against a secular country; It has always provoked terrorism.

Following the independence of Bangladesh, JI continued to wage the same wars against the new nation. Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shangha (now Islami Chhatra Shibir) directly stood against peoples demand for independence. They said the war was instigated by Hindus and was being backed up by India. They said there will be no Islam if Pakistan is divided.

Jamaat’s Rise in Bangladesh

· Politics of Bangladesh took several dramatic and tragic turns in 1975. Leader of the nation, Sheikh Mujib, tried to respond to the instability of country by imposing a draconian one-party state. He was subsequently killed by a military coup. Countercoups followed, descending into a larger armed mutiny. By the end of the year, many of the people who politically or militarily led the country’s freedom struggle in 1971 were dead or marginalized. The exception was Major General Ziaur Rahman, who emerged as the country’s de facto ruler.

· Zia gradually reintroduced electoral politics and a parliament was elected in 1979. The ban on Jamaat, which had begun in 1971, was not, however, formally lifted because the Election Commission was not convinced of the party’s commitment to the sovereignty of Bangladesh. Nonetheless, six JI members were elected to the 300-member assembly under the banner of the Islamic Democratic League.

· Shah Azizur Rahman at the outbreak of the Bangladesh Liberation War, supported the Pakistani state forces and denounced the Bengali nationalist struggle. Leading the Pakistani delegation to the United Nations in November 1971, Rahman emphatically denied that the Pakistan Army's Operation Searchlight had degenerated into genocide. Following the defeat of Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War, Rahman continued to reside in Pakistan. Rahman continued to lobby with the Muslim nations in the Middle East to thwart diplomatic recognition of Bangladesh. After the independence of Bangladesh, while Shah Azizur Rahman was permitted to return Bangladesh he was arrested. When Ziaur Rahman became the President of Bangladesh, he allowed Rahman to take part in the national elections and appointed him as the prime minister of Bangladesh in 1978.

· The citizenship of Golam Azam, chief of the then East Pakistan Jamaat, was revoked by the government of Bangladesh in 1972. Azam returned to Bangladesh on a Pakistan passport in May 1979 and formed Jamaat-e-Islami. In May, Jamaat, at a press briefing, officially opened its party politics in Bangladesh. The Islami Chhatra Shanga was also re-launched under the name of Islami Chhatra Shibir.

· In 1981 Zia was assassinated and Lt. Gen. H.M. Ershad assumed power in 1982. As Ershad moved to legitimize his rule through elections, like Major Zia he also needed multi-party democracy. The ban on Jamaat was lifted.

· Golam Azam was a permanent resident of England until 1978 and maintained Pakistani citizenship until 1994 due to the refusal of the Bangladeshi government to grant him citizenship. From 1978 to 1994 he lived in Bangladesh illegally without any authorized Bangladeshi visa. In 1994, the Supreme Court made a decision to restore his citizenship in Bangladesh as a matter of birth-right. Azam remained chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh until 2001 when Matiur Rahman Nizami replaced him.

· In 1992, a strong movement for the elimination of the killers and collaborators of 1971 was initiated by Jahanara Imam, a mother of war martyrs. It was a movement led to a fall in the popularity of Jamaat. Awami League strongly supported the movement. But the then ruling party BNP filed a sedition case against Jahanara Imam. However the movement gathered momentum amongst the people of Bangladesh and conssequently Jamaat won only three seats in 1996 election.

· Later, Jamaat formed a political alliance with BNP and won 17 seats in the national election of 2001.^{[4] [5]}

The Verdicts

Until now, the International Crimes Tribunal has given three verdicts. In the first verdict Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad, alias Bachchu Razakar, was sentenced to death. In the second verdict, Quader Mollah has been sentenced to life imprisonment and the third one gave death sentence to Jamaat’s Nayebe Amir Delwar Hossain Sayedee. In the first two verdicts, Jamaat-e-Islami’s direct involvement in 1971 atrocities has been acknowledged by the judges. The court said,

9. The massacres started with program called “Operation searchlight,” which was designed to disarm and liquidate Bengali policemen, soldiers and military officers, to arrest and kill nationalist Bengali politicians, soldiers and military officers, to arrest and kill and round up professionals, intellectuals, and students (Siddiq 1997 and Safiullah 1989). Actions in concert with its local collaborator militias, Razakar, Al-badar and Jamat E Islami (JEI) were intended to stamp out Bengali national liberation movement and to crush the national feelings and aspirations of the Bengalis.

10. In the War of Liberation that ensued, all people of East Pakistan wholeheartedly supported and participated in the call to free Bangladesh but a small number of Bangalees, Biharis, other pro-Pakistanis, as well as members of a number of different religion-based political parties, particularly Jamat E Islami (JEI) and its student wing Islami Chatra Sangha (ICS) joined and/or collaborated with the Pakistan military to actively oppose the creation of independent Bangladesh and most of them committed and facilitated the commission of atrocities in violation of customary international law in the territory of Bangladesh. As a result, 3 million (thirty lac) people were killed, near about quarter million women were raped, about 10 million (one crore) people deported to India as refugees and million others were internally displaced. It also experienced unprecedented destruction of properties all over Bangladesh.

11. The Pakistan government and the military setup number of auxiliary forces such as the Razakars, the Al-Badar, the Al-Shams, the Peace Committee etc, essentially to collaborate with the military in identifying and eliminating all those who were perceived to be sympathized with the liberation of Bangladesh, individuals belonging to minority religious groups especially the Hindus, political groups belonging to Awami League and other pro-Independence political parties, Bangalee intellectuals and civilian population of Bangladesh. Jamat E Islami (JEI), as an organization, substantially contributed in creating these paramilitias forces (auxiliary force) for combating the unarmed Bangalee civilians, in the name of protecting Pakistan. Undeniably the road to freedom for the people of Bangladesh was arduous and torturous, smeared with blood, toil and sacrifices. In the contemporary world history, perhaps no nation paid as dearly as the Bangalees did for their emancipation. ^[6]

In the second verdict of Quader Mollah, the court elaborated more on the role of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971.

In the War of Liberation that ensued, all people of East Pakistan wholeheartedly supported and participated in the call to free Bangladesh but a small number of Bangalees, Biharis, other pro-Pakistanis, as well as members of a number of different religion-based political parties particularly Jamat E Islami (JEI) and its student wing Islami Chatra Sangha (ICS), Muslim League, Pakistan Democratic Party(PDP) Council Muslim League, Nejam E Islami joined and/or collaborated with the Pakistan occupation army to aggressively resist the conception of independent Bangladesh and most of them committed and facilitated the commission of atrocities in violation of customary international law in the territory of Bangladesh. "The workers belonging to purely Islami Chatra Sangha were called Al-Badar, the general patriotic public belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami, Muslim League, Nizam-e-Islami etc were called Al-Shzims and the Urdu-speaking generally known as Bihari were called al-Mujahid.

…

"Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan' became independent in December l97l after a nine-month war against West Pakistan. The West's army had the support of many of East Pakistan's Islamist parties. They included Jamaat-e-Islami, still Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, which has a student wing that manned a pro-army paramilitary body, called Al Badr."

[Source: The Economist: Jul lst 2010: http://www.economist.com/node/l 6 485517?zid=309&ah=80dcIZ88bE56 I U0t 2rc0lUfOlSZZfOel]

…

Jamat E Islami (JEI) and some other pro-Pakistan political organizations substantially contributed in creating these para-militias forces (auxiliary force) for combating the unarmed Bangalee civilians, in the name of protecting Pakistan. Actions in concert with its local collaborator militias, Razakar, Al-Badar and Jamat E Islami (JEI) and other elements of pro-Pakistani political parties were intended to stamp out Bangalee national liberation movement and to mash the national feelings and aspirations of the Bangalee nation. Fox Butterfield wrote in the New York Times- January 3, 1972 that “Al Badar is believed to have been the action section of Jamat-e-Islami, carefully organized after the Pakistani crackdown last March".

[Source: Bangladesh Documents Vol. II page 577, Ministry of Extemal Affairs, New Delhi]. ^[7]

The description above is only a very small part of the depiction the ICT judges. The 132-pages long verdict contains much more detail about Jamaat’s deliberate stand against the formation of Bangladesh. Even after the independence of Bangladesh, Golam Azam, once the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, formed East Pakistan Retrieve Committee and continued lobbying with the western countries to find ways to reunite the polities of Bangladesh and Pakistan. ^[8]

Banning Jamaat

The present mass awakening at Shahbag which has spread throughout the country is being seen as a continuation of the movement started by Jahanara Imam in 1992. Jamaat’s student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir has been notorious for its violent tactics. It has been listed as a terrorist organization in the South Asia Terrorism Portal, where Shibir’s terrorist activities are described in detail. ^{[9] [10]}

The points for which people think Jamaat-Shibir should be banned can be listed in brief as follow:

1. Jamaat-e-Islamias a party was against the independence of the country. It did everything it could so that East-Pakistan would not become Bangladesh.

2. Jamaat-e-Islami leaders are war criminals. They actively took part in murder, genocide, arson, looting, rapes and other atrocities to help the Pakistani forces to keep control over the land.

3. Even after the independence of Bangladesh, Jamaat-e-Islami leaders worked against the new nation. After 1971, an ‘East Pakistan Retrieval Committee’ was formed by Jamaat’s East Pakistan Ameer (chief) Golam Azam in London. Publishing the weekly Shonar Bangla in London he disseminated propaganda against Bangladesh. There are countless more incidents. Visiting Saudi Arabia in March 1975 he told King Faisal that Hindus have captured East Pakistan, the holy Quran has been burnt, mosques have been destroyed and converted into temples, and Muslims were killed. ^[11]

4. All political parties in Bangladesh must obey the provisions of the Representation of People’s Order (RPO) in order to participate in national elections. ^{[12] [13]} However, the constitution of Jamaat-e-Islami contradicts the terms of the RPO.

5. Jamaat-e-Islami remains a terrorist organization. One of their recent acts of terrorism was on Feb 21 2013. On this day they attacked police, journalists, Shaheed Minar (monument made in memory of the language martyrs) and tore down the national flag, set off bombs, fired bullets and so on. Several ministers of the government came out in support of banning Jamaat politics. The Prime Minister herself said Jamaat-e-Islami has no right to do politics in Bangladesh. ^[14]^[15] The latest act of Jamaat violence was on the very day, when one of the topmost leaders Delwar Hossain Sayedee was given death sentence on Feb 28. At least 33 were killed as Jamaat-Shibir runs riot in no less than 15 districts. Police stations were attacked and looted, police members were brutally murdered. The violence and deaths continued for the next few days.^[16]

Now, after Germany's defeat in World War II (1939-45), the Nazi Party was outlawed and many of its top officials were convicted of war crimes related to the murder of some 6 million European Jews during the Nazis' reign. ^[17]

The Shahbag movement has drawn a clear line in the national politics of the country. This people’s movement clearly demands that there can be only one side in politics in Bangladesh and that is the side of the liberation war. The protesters of the new generation uttered that both the ruling and the opposition parties of the country should reflect the spirit of the war of independence. It is now high time for the government to make a decision and to listen to the voices of the people who bought it to power. The entire nation eagerly waits to see what awaits for them. Will it be justice or betrayal?