Motiur Nizami, 2004: the mastermind of all political killings and patron of various Mujahedin forces and Jihadist terrorist cells.The chief of operations of the al-Badr (Jamati death squad) forces, Motiur Rahaman Nizami is responsible for the murder of thousands of Bengalis involved in or connected to the liberation war. Son of Khondokar Lutfar Rahman of Monmothpur village under Sathia PS in Pabna district, Motiur has nothing to do with the title Nizami (Nizam means aristocrat i.e. Nizam of Hyderabad, India) at all . Like his other Islamist peers Motiur took up his title Nizami in order to make his name sound respectable, conceal his lowly origin and his base nature. The people of his village hated him so much for his shameless betrayal of his own countrymen that they still call him Moitya Dalal (traitor). Motiur is presently the minister for industries in Khaleda Zia's cabinet--a reward for Motiur's support of the Pakistani hunks Khaleda desrted her husband for in 1971.
Motiur Nizami's War Crimes in 1971
Motiur carried out a wide range of activities against the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. Motiur was the president of Jamat's youth front, the Islami Chhatra Sangha (now known as Islami Chhatra Shibir or the Islamic Students' Association). Under Motiur's direct supervision and leadership, the al-Badr (para-militia) force was organised in order to eliminate the freedom fighters and supporters of liberation movement. Motiur was the commander-in-chief of al- Badr forces. Apart from killing the freedom fighters and supporters of liberation movement, the aim of ideological warfare waged by the al-Badr forces was to Islamization (Talibanisation) of Bangladesh. One of the main objectives of al-Badr forces was to short list the secular Bangalee intellectuals and eliminate them. Horrifying stories of killing of intellectuals by Motiur's al-badr forces were published in newspapers, home and abroad, during and after the liberation war.1. During the war Motiur acted as one of the top Jamati ideologues instigating his cohorts and followers by means of public speech and newspaper articles to support the Pakistani occupation army in killing the freedom fighters and supporters of liberation war. In one of the issues of Daily Sangram, the Jamati mouth piece, Motiur wrote : The day is not far away when the young men of al-Badr, hand in hand with the armed forces, will defeat the Hindu forces (enemies) and raise the victorious banner of Islam all over the world, after the destruction of India. (Daily Sangram Nov 14, 1971)
2. On April 12, 1971, Motiur joined Gholam Azam and other leading collaborators such as Sabur Khan to lead a procession in Dhaka to demonstrate their support for Pakistan. The procession, under the banner of peace committee ended with a special prayer for the victory of Pakistan. (Daily Sangram April 13, 1971).
3. In Jessore, a bordering district, Motiur, in addressing the assembly of the para militia forces at the district head quarter of the Razakar force, said: In this hour of national crisis, it is the duty of every razakar to carry out his national duties to eliminate those who are engaged in war against Pakistan and Islam. (Daily Sangram Sept 15, 1971)
3. People from Motiur's home district, Pabna, have brought allegations against Motiur's direct involvement in killing, rape, arson and lootings. One such person is Aminul Islam Dablu of Brishlika village under the Bera Police Station (in Bangladesh, due to the colonial legacy, all administrative units below districts are organised under a police station, PS, hence all sub-districts are called Thana or PS). Dablu told the commission that his father Mohamed Sohrab Ali was killed on the orders of Motiur. Dablu further said that a number of people from the area were killed on Motiur's orders such as: Profulla Pramanik, Bhadu Pramanik, Manu Pramanik and Shashthi Pramanik. Dablu said there were many eye witnesses to those killings.
4. Abdul Quddus, a freedom fighter from Madhabpur village in Pabna, once spent two weeks in an al-Badr torture cell following his arrest in an uneven war. Quddus said he heard plans to kill freedom fighters and local supporters of the war were discussed and drawn up by al-Badr men under Motiur's supervision.
5. On November 26 a razakar commander named Sattar took Pakistani troops to the Dhulaupara village where 30 freedom fighters were arrested and subsequently killed. As per Quddus's testimony, Sattar carried out the execution on Motiur's order. Quddus told the commission that he managed to attend a secret meeting of al-Badr forces which Motiur presided and gave instructions to kill freedom fighters. In the meeting the al-Badr men listed the houses of Awami League leaders and the bases and hide-outs of the freedom fighters. Motiur sternly ordered his men to finish off Awami League supporters and possible bases and safe houses being used by freedom fighters were identified. Quddus said Motiur gave orders to finish off Awami League supporters and destroy bases of the freedom fighters. The day after the meeting, Al-Badr forces, in cooperation with Razakars, surrounded Brishlika village and burnt it to the ground.
6. Quddus also said Motiur himself bayoneted to death one Bateswar Saha of Madhabpur village in Sathia PS.
7. In Pabna Motiur led the killing of a young freedom fighter Latif and his group. Latif was only 19 years old and a first year student of Pabna Edward College. Latif's small group was captured by the Pakistani occupation army in an uneven combat at Dhuliuri. They were then handed over to Motiur's gang for execution. Motiur's lieutenants publicly slew Latif's co-fighters with big camp knifes especially used for slaughtering bulls for sacrifice (during Islamic festival called korbani) as a part of Islamic ritual. The bastards in Motiur's group celebrated the killing of the captured freedom fighters with cannibalistic zeal. They gouged Latif's eyes, chopped off his genitalia and tied his dead body on a stick at Shanthia (Badshah, a socialist activist was killed in the same way by one of Motiur's top killer gang-JMJB in May 2004, please see Islamist Extremism in Bangladesh page). Latif's father Sufian Paramanik is a witness to his son's brutal murder and the razakars' frenzied outburst of pleasure in killing the brave sons of the soil.
8. Latif's brother Shahjahan Ali, a freedom fighter himself from Madhabpur village, nearly met the same fate. After slaughtering Shahjahan, along with his co-fighters, in Islamic manner, Motiur's people left him taking him for dead. But Shahjahan was a die hard freedom fighter. The slayer's knife could not take his life. Deadly wounded, Shahjahan lay on ground for hours. Foxes smelled at him, dogs bit him. Fortunately his relatives came by before it was too late and saved his life. Motiur's knife could not take Shahjahan's life, but took away his voice: now Shahjahan is paralyzed and can't talk carrying a big scar on his throat-Motiur's kiss of death.
Verifiable list of people killed by Motiur and his al-Badr forces:
Mohd Sohrab Ali Profulla Pramanik Bhadu Pramanik
Monu Pramanik Shashati Pramanik Bateswar Saha
Freedom fighter Latif 30 freedom fighters in Latif's group Dara
Chand Muslem Akhter
Kabir
In 1971 Motiur was personally involved in killing of hundreds of Hindus and confiscating their assets and properties. By confiscation and extortion of large amount of money, jewellery and assets from the wealthy Hindu families, Motiur became a millionaire within nine months of the war. During the Sheikh Mujib government (1971-75) Motiur went underground in order to escape conviction as a war criminal. In 1976, as a part of General Zia's razakar rehabilitation program, Motiur resurfaced and took charge as the second in charge of Jamat-e-Islam. Motiur is presently the chief of Jamat-e-Islam.
Jamat's goal to render intellectual bankruptcy is not confined to pre school stage only. Motiur successfully expanded its mission to the tertiary level as well. Motiur's wife founded an English medium college in the most aristocratic residential area in Dhaka city. The college boasts of having international educational standard as its name indicates " Manarat International College". The off-springs of the Muslim Bangladeshi elites swarm into that so-called English medium college. Manarat is an English medium college in the limited sense that it disseminates its knowledge in English language. But what constitutes its epistemological corpus? Koran and all forms of Arabic medieval precepts. The graduates from Manarat college are apparently smart (as the definition of smart in Bangladesh means ability to speak trash in English) but intellectually and attitudinally medieval: perfect elements for Islamic fundamentalism. Politically Gholam Azams and Mainuddins are feared monsters, but culturally Motiur's and Saidi's are more corrosive and their impact on society is far reaching.
Other crimes by Motiur Nizami
1. After the election in 2001, Motiur Nizami's armed men forced the members of 20 Hindu families in Pagla Haldar Para, part of Nizami's constituency, to eat beef. (Daily Janakantha 10 Oct 2004)
2. Although Jamat preaches Wahabism its head Nizami gave a lavish Iftar party in the most expensive hotel in Bangladesh (Sonargaon) on 11 November 2003 when the northern districts of Bangladesh were devastated with famine. In the Iftar party Nizami invited top 550 elites of the country and spent 300,000 taka.
GENOCIDE BANGALEE IN 1971
31. In the circumstances that prevailed in East Pakistan from the 1st of March to the 16th of December 1971, it was hardly possible to obtain an accurate estimate of the toll of death and destruction caused by the Awami League militants and later by the Pakistan Army. It must also be remembered that even after the military action of the 25th of march 1971, Indian infiltrators and members of the Mukti Bahini sponsored by the Awami League continued to indulge in killings, rape and arson during their raids on peaceful villages in East Pakistan, not only in order to cause panic and disruption and carry out their plans of subversion, but also to punish those East Pakistanis who were not willing to go along with them. In any estimate of the extent of atrocities alleged to have been committed on the East Pakistani people, the death and destruction caused by the Awami League militants throughout this period and the atrocities committed by them on their own brothers and sisters must, therefore, be always be kept in view.
To try to bolster her argument that the Pakistani forces in Bangladesh could not have raped so many women, she claims:
GENOCIDE BANGALEE IN 1971
The genocide committed by the Pakistan army during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 is no exception. Because of the scale of the atrocities in 1971 against a civilian population of 70 million people it has proved impossible for genocide deniers to claim that the atrocities did not occur. Instead, they have focused on two tactics used to try to deny the Holocaust: that the scale of the genocide was not that great, and that the Pakistan army had no systematic policy of genocide.
Most estimates of the 1971 genocide put the death toll between 300,000 and 3 million Bangladeshis dead, with between 200,000 to 400,000 women raped. R.J Rummel, in his book Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900, puts the death toll at around 1.5 million. According to Gendercide Watch:
The number of dead in Bangladesh in 1971 was almost certainly well into seven figures. It was one of the worst genocides of the World War II era, outstripping Rwanda (800,000 killed) and probably surpassing even Indonesia (1 million to 1.5 million killed in 1965-66).
Susan Brownmiller, in her book Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, puts the number of women raped by the Pakistan military and their local collaborators, the Razakars, between 200,000 and 400,000. She writes:
Rape in Bangladesh had hardly been restricted to beauty. Girls of eight and grandmothers of seventy-five had been sexually assaulted … Pakistani soldiers had not only violated Bengali women on the spot; they abducted tens of hundreds and held them by force in their military barracks for nightly use.
On March 25, 1971 the Pakistan army unleashed a systematic campaign of genocide on the civilian population of then East Pakistan. Nine months later a defeated Pakistan army left in its wake one of the most concentrated acts of genocide in the twentieth century.
After the Bangladesh Liberation War the government of Pakistan produced a report on the actions of the Pakistani army during 1971 known as the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report. While the report acknowledged that the Pakistani army had indeed committed atrocities in Bangladesh, it downplayed the extent of the atrocities and denied that there was any systematic policy of genocide:
32. According to the Bangladesh authorities, the Pakistan Army was responsible for killing three million Bengalis and raping 200,000 East Pakistani women. It does not need any elaborate argument to see that these figures are obviously highly exaggerated. So much damage could not have been caused by the entire strength of the Pakistan Army then stationed in East Pakistan even if it had nothing else to do. In fact, however, the army was constantly engaged in fighting the Mukti Bahini, the Indian infiltrators, and later the Indian army. It has also the task of running the civil administration, maintaining communications and feeding 70 million people of East Pakistan. It is, therefore, clear that the figures mentioned by the Dacca authorities are altogether fantastic and fanciful.
33. Different figures were mentioned by different persons in authority but the latest statement supplied to us by the GHQ shows approximately 26,000 persons killed during the action by the Pakistan Army. This figure is based on situation reports submitted from time to time by the Eastern Command to the General Headquarters. It is possible that even these figures may contain an element of exaggeration as the lower formations may have magnified their own achievements in quelling the rebellion. However, in the absence of any other reliable data, the Commission is of the view that the latest figure supplied by the GHQ should be accepted. An important consideration which has influenced us in accepting this figure as reasonably correct is the fact that the reports were sent from East Pakistan to GHQ at a time when the Army Officers in East Pakistan could have had no notion whatsoever of any accountability in this behalf.
The Report’s estimate of 26,000 dead stands in stark contrast to every other study of the death toll, which put the death toll between 300,000 to 3 million. The Report was an attempt by the Pakistani government and army to dictate the narrative before the true extent of the genocide became evident to the world. The Pakistani Report has nonetheless stood as the document of last resort for most 1971 genocide deniers.
Following up on her 2005 paper denying the extent of the 1971 genocide published in the Economic and Political Weekly,Sarmila Bose has now published a paper denying the extent of the rapes of Bangladeshi women by the Pakistan army and the Razakars. In her paper entitled “Losing the Victims: Problems of Using Women as Weapons in Recounting the Bangladesh War” she states in the introduction:
That rape occurred in East Pakistan in 1971 has never been in any doubt. The question is what was the true extent of rape, who were the victims and who the perpetrators and was there any systematic policy of rape by any party, as opposed to opportunistic sexual crimes in times of war.
At the very beginning of her paper, she lays down the two tactics familiar to all genocide deniers: she questions the extent of the rape and questions whether there was any systematic policy of rape. Ms. Bose argues that claiming “hundreds of thousands” were raped trivializes “the possibly several thousand true rape victims” of the war. She however does not offer a good explanation as to how she reached the “several thousand” number other than saying that so many rapes would not be possible by the size of the Pakistani army in 1971. She also, unsurprisingly, quotes the passage from the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report that I cited above to support her assertion that so many rapes could not have occurred.
The number of West Pakistani armed forces personnel in East Pakistan was about 20,000 at the beginning of the conflict, rising to 34,000 by December. Another 11,000 men — civil police and non-combat personnel — also held arms.
For an army of 34,000 to rape on this scale in eight or nine months (while fighting insurgency, guerrilla war and an invasion by India), each would-be perpetrator would have had to commit rape at an incredible rate.
[A Pakistan stamp depicting the 90,000 PoWs in Indian camps. This stamp was issued with the political aim of raising the POW issue at a global level in securing their release.]
The actual number of Pakistani forces at the end of the war, and taken PoW by the Indians, was 90,368, including over 54,000 army and 22,000 paramilitary forces. It is not unreasonable to conclude that a force of 90,000 could rape between 200,000 to 400,000 women in the space of nine months. Even if only 10% of the force raped only one woman each in nine months, the number of rapes are well over “several thousand” claimed by Ms. Bose. Since Ms. Bose does the math in her paper, I will do the macabre calculation for the total force here. To rape 200,000 Bangladeshi women a Pakistani force of 90,000 would have to rape 2 to 3 women each in nine months. Not only is this scale of atrocity possible by an army engaged in a systematic campaign of genocide, it also has parallels in other modern conflicts (for example, therape of between 250,000 to 500,000 women in Rwanda within 100 days).
Ms. Bose also paints a picture of the Pakistani military as a disciplined force that spared women and children. She writes:
During my field research on several incidents in East Pakistan during 1971, Bangladeshi participants and eyewitnesses described battles, raids, massacres and executions, but told me that women were not harmed by the army in these events except by chance such as in crossfire. The pattern that emerged from these incidents was that the Pakistan army targeted adult males while sparing women and children.
THE BD WOMEN ARE respectable, graceful and hard working indeed. The BD society acknowledges the role of their women.
ReplyDelete