Drishtipat Blog

On August 28, the High Court acquitted six of the accused in the November 3, 1975 jail killing case, two of whom had earlier been sentenced to death and four to life while upholding the death sentence of Muslemuddin. The convictions of eight others who did not appeal remains valid.

Our political history is riddled with tales of conspiracy and murder. Most unfortunate, however, is the precedent that has been set over the decades, of killers getting away with impunity.

Four years ago on August 21, 23 people were killed in a series of grenade attacks at an Awami League (AL) meeting being held in front of the party office at Bangabandhu Avenue. Though the prime target, former prime minister and the then leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina, survived with ear injuries, a number of central AL leaders, including Women’s Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman, were killed, over 200 people injured. Injuries ranged from splinter wounds, loss of eyesight and limbs. Some of the victims still carry the splinters, which could not be removed, inside their bodies.

Less than six months later, on January 27, 2005, former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and four other AL activists were killed in another grenade attack on an AL rally in Habiganj; about 70 others were injured. Despite allegations of a controversial investigation, the trial began in May 2006 but was halted due to a High Court (HC) stay order. The case is now pending at the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal.

Of the 10 accused in the Kibria case, eight are in detention and two absconding. All 10 are Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) men, one of them is the district BNP vice-president AKM Abdul Quayum, who was later expelled from the party. Links have also been made to the Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (Huji), but Kibria’s family and party members claim that the masterminds behind the killing have been left out of the investigation and have urged the caretaker government to fairly investigate the murder.

As for the August 21 attacks, case proceedings finally began last month after police filed a chargesheet against 22 people, including former deputy minister for education in the BNP-led alliance Abdus Salam Pintu and eight absconding Huji members. This came out after an intense and long drawn out drama surrounding the investigation. The initial probe was carried out under the direct supervision of Lutfozzaman Babar, state minister for home affairs at the time. The 20 persons arrested following the investigation, which included a student and an AL leader and ward commissioner, however, were not found guilty in the later investigation. Another twist was brought about with the confessions of Joj Miah and two others who claimed that a criminal gang had carried out the attacks. These confessions were later found by the present administration to have been obtained by force, and by paying Joj Miah’s family a few thousand taka monthly. At one point, even a “foreign enemy” was implicated in the incident. Even after the usual blame game and all the twists and turns in the investigation process, doubts still remain as to whether the real culprits behind such a well-planned and deadly attack have been identified.

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In a nation that has witnessed the killing of its national leaders, including its founding father, almost from its birth, these killings do not come as a shock. The trend of killers getting away with impunity has been set early in our history. The same killers who on August 15, 1975 murdered Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 21 members of his family and household, including children and pregnant women, also assassinated four national leaders — Syed Nazrul Islam, acting president of the government-in-exile, prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed, finance minister M Mansur Ali and minister for home affairs, relief and rehabilitation AHM Qamruzzaman — inside a prison cell, on November 3, 1975. The latter massacre was a part of a contingency plan in the event that a counter-coup occurred, basically, to wipe out a whole leadership whom the killers did not see fit to govern the nation. Not only were the perpetrators not punished for their crimes, but they were actually allowed to escape and even rewarded by the State with promotions and diplomatic postings abroad.

On May 30, 1981, President Ziaur Rahman, who ultimately came to power after the coups and counter-coups of the 1970s, was assassinated by a faction of army officers, in approximately the 20th coup attempt against Zia himself. The killing of Brigadier Khalid Musharraf, Colonels Huda and Haider in November 1975, as well as the execution of Col. Abu Taher by Zia and the hasty trial and punishment of Zia’s own killers, were also said to be politically motivated.

But the culprits of the Bangabandhu and jail killings were, for 21 years, covered by the Indemnity Ordinance passed by the government under president Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed, which was later legalised in parliament. Only in 1996 after the AL came to power was the ordinance repealed and a murder case filed on October 2 of that year. In November 1998, 15 former army officers were awarded the death penalty by the trial court in the Bangabandhu murder case. The HC later upheld the death sentences of 12 — Syed Farook Rahman, Bazlul Huda, Shahriar Rashid Khan, Muhiuddin, AKM Mahiuddin, Khondaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, AM Rashed Chowdhury, SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Abdul Majed and Muslemuddin. The first five are currently in custody. The latter six are absconding (Muslemuddin is rumoured to be dead), while Aziz Pasha, who was also on the run, died in Zimbabwe.

On October 20, 2004, Muslemuddin, Marfat Ali Shah and Abdul Hashem Mridha (all absconding) against whom charges “were proven beyond doubt” in the jail killing case, were sentenced to death. Syed Farook Rahman, Bazlul Huda, Shahriar Rashid Khan, AKM Mahiuddin, Khandoker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Abdul Majed, AM Rashed Chowdhury, Ahmed Sharful Hossain, Kismat Hashem and Nazmul Hossain were sentenced to life for abetting the murderers. Five people were acquitted in the jail killing case, the verdict of which the slain leaders’ families and the AL rejected as being “farcical” and for which even the judge blamed the investigation officer for faulty investigation.

The Bangabandhu murder case is currently awaiting hearing in the Appellate Division. According to the State Counsel for the case, there are not enough judges in the Appellate Division to hear it. Out of the five judges, three cannot hear the case — two were embarrassed and one passed a verdict on this case in the HC. A minimum of two judges is required for hearing cases in the Appellate Division.

In the jail killing case, the defence lawyers and State defence lawyers had already argued their cases while the State Counsel completed its arguments last Thursday.

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The perpetrators of the Bangabandhu and jail killings were self-proclaimed. In an interview with the Sunday Times on May 30, 1976, Syed Farook Rahman, said to be the mastermind behind the killings, said, “Let the Bangladesh government put me on trial for the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. I say it was an act of national liberation. Let them publicly call it a crime.” He even cited five reasons for which he “ordered” Mujib’s killing.

But the chain of reactions which Farook and his accomplices set in motion did not end there. The struggle for power, the coups and counter-coups and killings continued, so much so that veteran journalist Anthony Mascarenhas, who followed the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and the chaotic years which followed, has termed it Bangladesh’s “legacy of blood”, beginning from the partially flawed leadership of Sheikh Mujib which set off the killings in the first place. When the killers were finally forced to face up to their crimes, however, albeit 21 years later, the bravado faded and despite all the evidence to the contrary, they denied responsibility.

Clear crimes, identified killers — why then did it take so long for the process of justice to be started? The most obvious reason is that those in power after the crimes did not care to have justice delivered.

“In most of the political killings in our history,” says Advocate Shahdeen Malik of the Supreme Court (SC), “a part of the State was involved. Thus it was difficult for the other parts of the State to take on these issues even if they wanted to. It would be difficult to turn around and strike at their own roots, saying that the killings from which they had benefited were illegal. It would have made the legitimacy of those who came to power after the killings very questionable. ”

“Ideally,” continues Malik, “the trials would have taken place immediately after the crimes. But those who were in power right after were the beneficiaries of these crimes — if you are the beneficiary of a crime you won’t be the most enthusiastic prosecutor of that crime.” He points out that President Ziaur Rahman’s killers were tried and punished not because it was an issue of right and wrong, but because someone derived the benefits, whereas in the former two cases, it was beneficial not to prosecute the culprits.

“The case and killing of Bangabandhu and his family was for all intent and purpose a murder case,” says former prosecutor and current State Counsel for both the Bangabandhu and jail killing cases, Anisul Huq. “But unfortunately, none of the governments that succeeded until 1996 lodged a case. Those who were in power between 1975 and 1990, 1991 and 1996, and 2001 and 2006 were the beneficiaries of the murder of Bangabandhu. They didn’t want to bring to justice and punish the killers of Bangabandhu and his family, because if it happened then maybe many unknown truths would have been revealed. This actually means that they have endorsed the killings and by so doing thwarted justice. This position was corrected in 1996.”

“We crossed a lot of hurdles and finally arrived at a verdict,” continues Huq. “Again, those who were the beneficiaries of this murder created obstacles by denying our consistent request that the Appellate Division hear this case, that an ad hoc judge be appointed, which is permitted by the Constitution. Our principal reason for such a demand was that these two cases needed to be finished for establishing the rule of law.”

“What we have seen after the murder of Bangabandhu and his family,” Huq goes on, “is a sequence of political murders which culminated finally in the killing of Ziaur Rahman. Had this trial been held earlier, then at least the message would have been conveyed that the perpetrators of such killings are brought to justice, which would put an end to such political killings. It would have conveyed a message to the populace that nobody is above the law, everybody is equal in the eye of law, which is the sine qua non for establishing the rule of law.”

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What does it say for the legal and justice system of a nation and what example does it set for its people, when murder after murder goes without investigation, trial and the meting out of justice?

As far as the people’s faith in the judicial system is concerned, Advocate Shahdeen Malik does not think the consequences of the above cases play a very important role.

“People have still not accepted our formal justice system,” he says. “If you catch a mugger, beating him up is most people’s idea of justice.” Not more than 30 percent of normal murder cases get formal justice, according to Malik. In the other 70 percent, settlements are made through compromise. The conviction rate in criminal cases is less than 10 percent. “There is a big disjunction between formal justice and people’s notion of justice. In the prevailing notion, the latter is the better justice where it is ensured 80 percent.”

Extra-judicial killings extract a high price from society, however, believes Malik. “Fast forward to crossfire, where a significant part of the State machinery is involved. The same story has been repeated 600 or 700 times, that the criminal was shot while escaping. These are clear instances of extra-judicial killings. What worries me most,” says Malik, “is that once extra-judicial killings become an accepted way of dealing with a problem in a society, however small a number, things can get out of hand. Most societies in the last 50 years which have tolerated this as a quick solution have ended up suffering tens of thousands of killings. It’s just a matter of time. Now the number may be 500 or 700, but for many societies the figures very quickly escalated into the thousands. The transition was very quick.”

“The basic rule of thumb,” says Malik, “is that you don’t keep those who have fought a war in the army. The US demobilised those who fought in Iraq within two years. A person with a gun is a dangerous person, one who has used a gun randomly, whether in war or elsewhere, is dangerous. With a person who becomes used to killing, however justified, however legal, there is always the fear of their using the gun again illegally. We didn’t understand this in 1972 and those who fought in 1971 continued to battle amongst themselves.”

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Decades after the crimes, the process of justice has begun, but obstacles still remain. Firstly, there is the question of investigations and their validity after such a long time has passed. How foolproof are probes carried out decades after an incident?

“With regard to the jail killings, a case was filed on November 4, 1975, but it was stopped by the successive governments,” says Advocate Anisul Huq. “This is unheard of. What these successive governments have proved or left for posterity is that this was actually a crime sponsored by the successive governments. They have taken the onus of being a party to it. By their conduct in the jail killing case they have only substantiated the fact of being beneficiaries of both the killings.”

As for the Bangabandhu murder case, Huq says there were problems due to the delayed investigation. “It was difficult and I’m not saying it was foolproof, no investigation is foolproof. What I am saying is that as much as was possible after 21 years was done.”

Not only is delayed justice a problem, but also the state of the judicial system itself, says Huq. “There are seven to eight judges of the HC division embarrassed to hear this case. That speaks of the pitiful state of our judicial system. If we are looking for accountability, if we are working for transparency, then I think these issues of the embarrassment of judicial officers and judges should also be resolved.”

Despite all the hurdles, however, the State Counsel is confident about its case. “I’m quite confident that we have been able to prove the charges of murder of the accused persons in these cases. We faced difficulties in certain areas and those difficulties were actually created by the party in power at that time. But from the time 2001 to 2006, the BNP made positive contributions towards the end of thwarting justice.” Huq believes that the cases will be resolved “soon enough, without setting a date”.

The long drawn out process, however, is not the only problem. Even after the cases are resolved, the matter of finding and punishing the culprits remains. Almost half the culprits in the cases are currently absconding. With many, there is the issue of extraditing them from the countries in which they now reside, including the US, Canada, Libya and Pakistan.

M. Aminul Islam, high commissioner of Bangladesh to Canada between 1998 and 2000, explains the problem of extraditing Nazmul Hossain and Kismat Hashem from Canada after they were convicted and sentenced to death in the Bangabandhu murder case in 1998. Nazmul Hossain was posted at the Bangladesh High Commission in Canada and later married a Canadian woman and became a citizen of that country. Kismat Hashem also settled in Canada, started a business there and became a Canadian citizen.

“After the judgement in the Bangabandhu murder case,” says Islam, “they could not be sent back as Bangladesh did not have an extradition treaty with Canada. Thus efforts were made to conclude an extradition treaty and drafts of treaties which Canada had with other countries were sent to Bangladesh for examination.”

A major problem, however, was the sentence itself, says Islam. “After the judgement, the Canadians pointed out that the men had been sentenced to death. There is no capital punishment in Canada and neither Canadian nationals nor citizens of any other country would be extradited from Canada to countries where they would face the death penalty. Thus it was felt that even if an extradition treaty were to be concluded, the two accused would not be extradited until and unless the Bangladesh government gave a guarantee that the death sentence would be commuted to jail terms.” As Nazmul Hossain and Kismat Hashem have been acquitted in the Bangabandhu murder case and now only face life terms in the jail killing case, that problem is gone, says Islam, but the extradition treaty is yet to be completed. The former ambassador also points out that when many years ago a Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi origin had fled from Canada to Bangladesh, Canada was very interested in signing an extradition treaty with Bangladesh but the latter country was not so keen at the time.

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According to Advocate Shahdeen Malik, most political killings in our country have not been addressed and it is unlikely that they will be. “The Bangabandhu and jail killing cases will probably be completed,” he says, “and something might be done in the August 21 case, the really high-profile ones. But at the next level, such as the killing of local leaders like AL’s Manzurul Imam, for example, it is unlikely that much will be done. Even the Kibria murder has not made much headway.”

Indeed, there have been scores of political murders over the decades. Some have wiped out a whole leadership. Others have stifled opposition and thwarted differences. From the killing of Salim and Delwar, Raufun Basunia and Nur Hossain, among others, during the Ershad era, to the bomb blast at a Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) meeting in 2001 which killed seven people and injured over a hundred; from the killing of Jaityo Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) leader and freedom fighter Kazi Aref in 1999 to the violent deaths of AL leaders Mumtazuddin Ahmed and Manzurul Imam in 2003 and AL lawmaker Ahsanullah Master in 2004 — the cases are endless, but justice has been served in few.

Throughout our history, violence has been seen as the way to eliminate opposition and rise to power. Because of the number of unsolved or unresolved cases, the unfortunate example of doing so with impunity has also been set. The politicisation of these crimes against not political but national leaders, has created further obstacles in the path of justice. With the most high-profile cases taking decades to be resolved, little hope can be held for those in lesser positions of power. Yet the fact that they are at long last being addressed is a step. If dealt with fairly and swiftly, it could work towards mitigating the unfortunate precedents set in our history, which promised the perpetrators of such brutal crimes immunity and impunity.