DHAKA: The Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that her government cannot pursue further charges against the Jamaat-e-Islami party for war crimes during the country’s 1971 independence war because of legal obstacles.
The Bangladeshi apex court on August 1 last year declared the registration of the country’s largest Islamist political party illegal, ruling that the party is unfit to contest national polls.
“A case on the Jamaat issue is now pending with the Supreme Court. They (SC) will decide if Jamaat will remain as a party or be banned,” Hasina said in a press conference on Saturday.
In 2010, Bangladesh established the international crimes tribunal to investigate atrocities perpetrated during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
The tribunal has already announced verdicts against some 10 war crimes accused and imposed death penalties on nine, seven of them being Jamaat leaders. Even in December last year, a senior leader of the party Abdul Kader Mullah was executed after he was convicted of war crimes in February by the tribunal.
