Friday, March 27, 2009

Indira blamed for not allowing Bangladesh war crime trials

MD Nalapat, the former editor of Times of India and a renowned columnist, has blamed former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for not allowing war trials to go on after Bangladesh's independnece.

He said: "Indira Gandhi refused to allow Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to hold war crimes trials, even though Lt-Gen AAK Niazi and other generals had butchered more than a million people, especially those unfortunate enough to be either Muslim moderates or any kind of Hindu in what was then East Pakistan."

"A War Crimes Trial would have exposed the complicity of the Pakistan army—including its Bengali cohort—in the East Pakistan genocide, but this was never held. Instead, charmed by Z A Bhutto, Indira Gandhi unconditionally freed the 93,000 occupation troops captured during the brief conflict, without allowing even a single officer to face retribution for his crimes against an innocent people. Subsequently, no effort was made to ensure that the remnants of the Pakistan army that was Bengali-speaking be disbanded, even though this group had functioned as slaves of the West Pakistanis. "

According to the writer, such negligence on the part of Indira Gandhi produced the coup against Mujibur Rahman, and turned Bangladesh military into 'the most vicious anti-India force' in the new country.

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