Condolence motion for war criminals: Outrage from various parties and organizations

Various parties and organizations have expressed anger, condemnation and protest over the adoption of condolence motions in the names of convicted war criminals and the insulting of the national anthem on the first day of the first session of the 13th National Parliament.

Leaders of these parties and organizations expressed their anger in separate statements on Friday.

Members of these organizations demanded the names of war criminals be deleted from the condolence motion and appropriate punishment for insulting the national anthem.

The statement of Ganatantrik Jukto Front stated that the mass uprising of 24 was against discrimination and fascist misrule. It was not for the rehabilitation of the murderers of the Liberation War. The young generation who gave their blood in that uprising did not take to the streets to see the rehabilitation of the Razakars. No political equation has the power to erase the blood debt of three million martyrs.

The statement protested the inclusion of convicted war criminal ATM Azharul Islam in the panel of the Presidium of the Parliament and demanded his immediate removal from the panel.

In a separate statement, Bazlur Rashid Firoz, General Secretary of the Socialist Party of Bangladesh (BSD), said that by adopting a condolence motion in the name of the Razakars and war criminals recognized as accomplices of the 1971 genocide, a shameful precedent has been set of trampling on the public consciousness that has emerged from the long struggle of the people of the country. The people consider this incident as an extreme betrayal of the Liberation War and 3 million martyrs and condemn it.

In another statement, Mahmud Selim, Acting President of the Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigosthi, and Amit Ranjan Dey, General Secretary, said that progressive cultural and democratic forces must unite against any attempt to glorify war criminals and insult the national anthem.

BaSaD (Marxist) coordinator Masud Rana said in a statement that before the elections, BNP sought votes by claiming itself to be a supporter of the Liberation War. The BNP's chief whip proposed to include the names of war criminals, who opposed the Liberation War, in the condolence motion of the parliament. In this, BNP broke its promise to its own voters.

Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) President Kazi Sajjad Zahir Chandan and General Secretary Abdullah Kafi said in a statement that the incident of accepting condolence motions in the names of convicted murderers and war criminals is unforgivable. The people of the country will never forget this.