Delwar Hussain's Death Does Not Erase the Memories of War Crimes He Committed
By
New Age Islam Staff Writer
25 August
2023
He Had
Cultivated An Image Of A Islamic Preacher And Scholar Of Quran.
Main
Points:
1. He was found guilty in two counts of
charges by the War Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh.
1. 2.Sheikh Hasina government had come
to power with the promise of trying war criminals.
2. He was convicted for murder, arson
and rape.
3. 4.He was also accused of forcibly
converting 100-150 Hindus.
4. He was an MP in the Khaleda Zia
government.
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Delwar
Hossain Sayeedi | Wikimedia commons
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Bangladesh
Jamaat Islami's Vice-Chairman and former MP of Bangladesh died on 14th August,
2023, ironically on the Independence Day of Pakistan while in prison of heart
attack. He was serving life sentence for his crimes committed during Bangladesh's
war for independence. Though he was a Bengali Muslim, he was against the idea
of Bangladesh. He took active part in the military action against the people of
the East Pakistan as a member of a paramilitary force called Razakar and
collaborated with the Pakistani army in the war crimes against the Bengali
speaking community comprising both Hindus and Muslims. He was made an accused
on 20 charges and was convicted in eight. He was accused of murder of Kutti and
Bisabali and setting fire to Hindu households in Pirojpur. He was also accused
of abducting three sisters of one Gauranga Saha and handing them over to the
Pakistani army as sex slaves. The girls were returned after three days. He was
also accused of forcibly converting 100-150 Hindus to Islam.
The
government executed 6 war criminals of which 5 were Jamaat Islami leaders and
one a BNP leader.
He was
popularly known as Delia Razakar and was very active during the Pakistan army's
brutal operation in 1971. The Razakars identified freedom fighters and helped
army to capture them.
In 2019,
Bangladesh belatedly formed the war crimes tribunal at the demand of the people
who long wanted the war criminals to brought to book. Since, Bangladesh was
mostly ruled by dictators and Bangladesh National Party which was a political
ally of Jamaat Islami, the legal action against the wr criminals could not take
place. Sheikh Hasina launched the WCT in 2009 after she came to power with a
full majority.
In the BNP
government, Delwar Hussain Sayeedi was a member of Parliament and an
influential leader in the government. The son of a madrasa teacher, he later on
became a Islamic scholar and preacher and established himself as a scholar of
Quran. He represented Bangladesh in international events. He attended Iran's
first revolution anniversary celebrations in 1982. Islamic Circle of North
America awarded him the title Allama.
He was
awarded death sentence in 2013. Soon after his conviction, his followers
launched a glorification campaign in his favour. A follower posted an image of
Delia Razakar (Delwar Hussain Sayeedi) imposed on moon and circulated the
rumour that his face was seen on the moon. The image and the rumour became
viral on social media.
His death
sentence was commuted to life sentence in 2014. In 2017, another plea was filed
for the review of the Supreme Court verdict but the Supreme Court upheld the
verdict.
Before his
conviction, Delwar was added to the No-Fly list of the United States of America
Terrorists Screening Centre. This lst was established to prevent suspected
radicals from entering from flying into the US. He was added to the list in
2004.
In 2008, he
was accused of hurting religious sentiments and causing disturbance. He was
known as a firebrand preacher.
The
Pakistan army's crackdown on Bangladeshi people was one of the most brutal and
most heinous operation in human history. Millions of innocent people were
killed, mostly Muslims by the army of a self-proclaimed Islamic country. Entire
villages were destroyed and millions of women were raped by the Pakistani army
and their Bangladeshi collaborators called Razakars. The Razakars were mainly
cadre of Jamaat Islami Pakistan. Delwar Hussain Sayeedi was one of them. They
opposed the idea of Bangladesh. In their eyes, those who demanded Bangladesh
were Kafirs and therefore Wajib ull Qatl (worthy to be killed) . Their
women were sex slaves. Had not Indian army intervened, Pakistan army would have
slaughtered other millions and suppressed their movement in a very brutal
manner and politically and economically, they would have to live like slaves in
Pakistan.
With the
help of India, Bangladesh came into existence and made remarkable progress as a
nation. They have progress in economic and political fields. Their economic
growth is remarkable and have left Pakistan way behind.
Bangladesh
has made all this progress since Shaikh Hasina came to power and cleared the
terrorism baggage it had been carrying since Gen. Ershad' s regime. Khaleda Zia
's government in alliance with Jamaat Islami Bangladesh followed its foreign
policy determined by Pakistan and therefore, terrorism was used as a tool to
disturb the peace in the region. Bangladesh became a terrorism hub and its land
was allowed to be used by ULFA of India against subversive a activities in
India. Sheikh Hasina herself was the target of a terrorist attack but she
survived while other party members and workers died. Bangla Bhai, the most
dreaded terrorist of Bangladesh emerged during Khaleda Zia government. He had
executed 500 simultaneous low intensity blasts in the entire country to his
wide network and strength. He was executed after Shaikh Hasina came to power.
Therefore,
the death of Delwar Husain Sayeedi and the execution of other war criminals and
terrorists during Shaikh Hasina has paved the way of progress, peace and
security of not only Bangladesh but for the entire region. Those who have been
glorifying these war criminals and terrorists are not the true representatives
of Bangladeshi people but a coterie of sectarian and extremist ideology.
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War Criminal Delwar Hossain Was
Against Bangladesh. Why Is His Face On The Moon Now?
By
Deep Halder
22 August,
2023
Soon after
the death of Naib Amir or the spiritual head of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami,
Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, on 14 August, a picture of his face superimposed on the
moon began circulating on various social media platforms in Bangladesh. It is
ironic that a man who was against the very idea of Bangladesh was being
venerated like this.
His
followers, quite a substantial number in the country given the outpouring of
grief on social media and the size of the crowd that came to his burial at his
hometown in coastal Pirojpur district, made the moon picture widely popular on
social media, inviting both online admiration and derision.
This was
not the first time that Sayeedi’s face had appeared on the moon. His supporters
had claimed in 2013 that Muslims from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia saw his face
pasted on the moon and it is God’s sign that Sayeedi is a true devotee.
“To draw
attention of the people who do not use internet, announcements were made
through loudspeakers of mosques about the picture, report our correspondents
from Chittagong, Rajshahi and Bogra. Besides, many people called The Daily Star
staff members from different districts to verify if such a moon was really
sighted,” The Daily Star had reported on 4 March 2013.
Meanwhile,
grief turned into anti-government protests as supporters mourned Sayeedi. “We won’t let the blood of Sayedee go in
vain,” supporters shouted. Many blamed the government of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina, which is preparing for general elections slated for January, reported
AFP on 15 August. One person was also reportedly killed during a confrontation
between police and a group attempting to hold a memorial ceremony for Sayeedi.
Who was
Delwar Hossain Sayeedi?
The answer
to this question will depend on who you ask in Bangladesh. Sayeedi was the vice
president of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami. He was Naib Amir or the spiritual
head of the Islamist party since 2009. His Islamic teachings had attracted a
substantial number of followers in his lifetime.
To the
government of the day and the courts of the country, though, Sayeedi was
nothing more than a convicted war criminal who needed to be locked up for life.
In 2013, he was given the death penalty on two counts of crimes against
humanity by the war crimes tribunal. He was accused of murder, arson and rape.
“Known as
‘Deilya Razakar’ in 1971, Sayeedi was found guilty of committing crimes against
humanity during the 1971 Liberation War… These include the murder of Bisabali
and arson in a Hindu neighbourhood, abduction and rape of three sisters of
Gauranga Saha, who was a prosecution witness and identified Sayedee as the man
who had handed over his sisters to the Pakistani army to be taken away as sex
slaves. They were returned after three days,” bdnews24.com reported on 31 March
2015, when the Supreme Court of Bangladesh released the full verdict. A year
later, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
But before
the war crimes tribunal was set up in 2019 to investigate and prosecute
suspects for the genocide committed in 1971 by the Pakistan army and their
local collaborators, Sayeedi was an elected member of parliament from 1996 to
2008.
Internationally,
Sayeedi was a man of much prominence. In 1982, on the invitation of Iran’s
supreme leader Imam Syed Ali Hussaini Khomeini, Sayeedi visited Tehran to celebrate
Iran’s first revolution anniversary. In 1991, he joined the Kuwait–Iraq war
memorial meeting at the invitation of the Saudi king Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al
Saud. In 1991, the Islamic Circle of North America awarded him the title
“Allama” (profound scholar). In 1993, Sayeedi was awarded the “Grand Marshal”
medal at the American Muslim Day Parade Conference in front of the United
Nations headquarters in New York.
Against
The Very Idea Of Bangladesh
It is
ironic that Sayedee breathed his last at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical
University named after the founder of Bangladesh. The 1971 war of liberation
was fought to dehyphenate East Pakistan from West Pakistan and to establish a
socio-cultural and linguistic identity over a religious identity. In the bloody
war that followed, if Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib stood at one corner, Delwar
Hossain Sayeedi stood at exactly the opposite. A Razakar or a member of a
Islamic paramilitary volunteer force, Sayeedi sided with the Pakistani army and
went against his own people, the Bengalis, to stop East Pakistan from becoming
Bangladesh. He and people like him failed.
But the
tragedy of modern Bangladesh is that the cult of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi is not
over. Even though Bangladesh was created, Sheikh Mujib was murdered on 15
August 1975 along with most of his family members, by forces inimical to the
idea of Bangladesh. Many Sayeedis continue to thrive and expand their influence
in Bangladesh against what Bangladesh was supposed to be. It is no wonder that
the country’s principal opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has
officially expressed condolences on his death.
“Sayeedi’s
views on women and minorities are despicable to say the least. He was a
convicted war criminal who sided with forces that threaten to disrupt
Bangladesh till date. No death should be celebrated, but Sayedee’s hopefully
ends a dark chapter in Bangladesh’s history,” Sahidul Hasan Khokon, Bangladeshi
journalist, told ThePrint.
The
photoshopped image of Sayeedi’s face on the moon may be fodder for memes, but
his cult is not funny.
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Views
are personal.
(Edited
by Ratan Priya)
Source: War Criminal Delwar Hossain Was
Against Bangladesh. Why Is His Face On The Moon Now?
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/delwar-hussain-death-war-crimes/d/130521
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