The BNP says the ongoing trials at the two war crimes tribunals of Bangladesh were not being conducted properly and blamed the failure to get desired verdicts on ‘inefficient prosecutors’.
BNP Standing Committee member Rafiqul Islam Mia told a rally on Tuesday in Dhaka that the government will have to take the blame and answer why this was happening.
“In her reaction to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla’s life term, newly appointed tribunal prosecutor Tureen Afroz’s has blamed the verdict on the prosecutors. Nothing can be done about it at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court,” Rafiqul Islam Mia said.
Thousands of people have been demonstrating across Bangladesh against Molla’s verdict since Feb 5 and asking for death penalty for all ‘war criminals’. Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life have joined the protests.
The BNP has not supported it and has backed Jamaat and other Islamist parties when they called strikes. Its leaders have so far said that the trials were not been ‘free and fair” and called for “greater transparency”.
Rafiqul Islam Mia was speaking at the rally organised by the ‘Sammilita Pesajibi Parishad’ in front of the National Press Club to protest against filing ‘false cases’ against BNP leaning vernacular Amar Desh newspaper’s Acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman.
The BNP leader came down hard on the government for allegedly using the law for partisan purposes.
“Cases are being filed against Amar Desh’s Acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman for writing the truth about the government’s corruption,” he said.bdnews24.com
