Veteran Bangladesh freedom fighters were jubilant over news of Mollah's execution (picture: AFP Photo/ Munir Azzaman)
Pakistan’s lower house of the Parliament adopted a resolution on Monday expressing concerns on Bangladesh’s hanging of Islamist party leader Abdul Kader Mollah for crimes committed during the 1971 war.
Mollah, 65, known as the “Butcher of Mirpur” for his part in the Bangladesh’s war with Pakistan, was hanged on December 12 in Dhaka’s central jail. The assistant secretary general of the right wing Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami Party was the first person convicted by Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal to be executed.
His execution was condemned by Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and other right wing political parties.
The resolution, moved by Jamaat member Sher Akbar Khan, was adopted with a clear majority vote.
“This house expresses deep concerns on the hanging of a veteran politician of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh for supporting Pakistan in 1971,” the resolution read.
It also expressed concern that wounds from the 1971 war were being re-opened and said Bangladesh should amicably resolve the cases against Bangladeshi leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Interior Minister Chauhdry Nisar Ali said that Mollah “was hanged through a judicial murder for supporting the united Pakistan in 1971.”
He said Mollah remained loyal to pre-1971 Pakistan and his hanging once again reminded Pakistanis of the wounds of separation of East Pakistan, as Bangladesh was formerly named. The government fully supported the resolution, which was prepared by Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, he said.
However, opposition parties told the government to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign country. Abdul Sattar Bachani of the Pakistan People’s Party said that Mollah was a killer of thousands of Bengalis and that it was condemnable to call him a martyr.
“Mollah was hanged by a sovereign and independent country at their court’s order. So we have no right to meddle in internal affairs of other countries,” he said.
