South Asia Terrorism Portal

Long-delayed Justice
S. Binodkumar Singh
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On October 15, 2019, the International Crimes Tribunal-1(ICT-1) handed down the death penalty to Abdul Jabbar Mondal (89), Jachijar Rahman (67), Abdul Wahed Mondal (65), Montaz Alia Bepari (71) and Ranju Miah (62), for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. All of them are from the Gaibandha Sadar upazila (sub-District) of Gaibandha District and were involved with Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), an anti-liberation party, during the Liberation War. They were tried on four counts of crimes against humanity. The tribunal found all the five convicts guilty on the first charge and gave them death penalty. According to this charge, the five, along with Pakistan Army personnel and fellow Razakars (a prominent pro-Pakistan militia) attacked the Hindu-dominated Bishnapur village in Gaibandha Sadar upazila in the first part of June 1971 and caught and tortured several people, killed two Hindus and forced 300 to 400 other Hindus to leave the country. Four of the accused, excluding Ranju, were also sentenced to death on the second charge, according to which the convicts, along with Pakistan Army personnel and other Razakars launched an attack in Nandina village of the same upazila on October 18, 1971, and shot eight people dead and destroyed 40 to 50 houses. According to the third charge, the same four convicts with their fellow Razakars and Pakistan Army carried out an attack in Daulatpur village of the same upazila and killed five persons, on the same day. They were awarded the death penalty on this charge as well. On the same day, the five convicts caught a non-combatant freedom fighter, Abul Kashem from Nandina village of the same upazila, and tortured him by hanging him from a tree. Later, he was shot dead. All five were handed down the death penalty on this charge as well.

On August 27, 2019, ICT-1 sentenced Abdus Samad Musa aka Firoz Khan (62), a JeI man to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. The tribunal found him guilty on four charges and sentenced him to death on each. According to the first charge, the convict was sentenced to death for abduction, confinement, torture and murder of four pro-liberation persons at Damdoma, Shukdebpur, Banshbari and Gotia villages in the Rajshahi District on April 19, 1971. Samad got the second death sentence as he was found guilty of abduction, confinement, torture and murder of six villagers at villages Gondogohali, Chakpolashi, Bairagibazar and Banshbari in Rajshahi District on the same day. He got another death sentence for genocide by committing murder of four Santal ethnic minority people, looting, arson and torture at Santal Para of village Paschimbag in the same District, on the same day.The war criminal got the fourth death sentence for murdering a man at Dhokrakul village in the same District on April 20, 1971, after confining the victim.

So far, the War Crimes (WC) Trials, which began on March 25, 2010, have indicted 125 leaders, including 50 from the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI); 27 from the Muslim League (ML); 11 from Nezam-e-Islami (NeI); five from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP); two each from the Jatiya Party (JP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); 27 former Razakars; and one former Al-Badr member. The latest one indicted by the ICT-1 on October 16, 2019, is former Director General (DG) of the National Security Intelligence (NSI) Muhammad Wahidul Haque (69), for genocide committed in Rangpur District where he had been serving with the Pakistani occupation Army during the Liberation War. The tribunal indicted him for killing 500 to 600 pro-liberation people who gathered near Rangpur Cantonment on March 28, 1971, to stage a demonstration in favour of independence and protesting against the barbaric atrocities committed on the night of March 25, 1971. On the night of March 25, the Pakistani Army had launched ‘Operation Searchlight’ and an estimated 7,000 people were killed and another 3,000 were arrested in a single night.

Significantly, out of 125 leaders indicted, verdicts have been delivered against 94 accused, including 68 who have been sentenced to death, and 26 to imprisonment for life. So far, six of the 68 people who were awarded the death sentence have been hanged. On September 3, 2016, JeI Central Executive member Mir Quasem Ali (63) was hanged at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur District; on May 11, 2016, JeI Ameer (Chief) Motiur Rahman Nizami (75) was executed at Dhaka Central Jail; on November 22, 2015, JeI Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed (67) and BNP Standing Committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury (66) were hanged simultaneously at Dhaka Central Jail; on April 11, 2015, JeI Senior Assistant Secretary General Mohammed Kamaruzzaman (63) was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail; and on December 12, 2013, JeI Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Mollah (65), who earned the nickname ‘Mirpurer Koshai (Butcher of Mirpur)’ was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail. 32 others are absconding and another 30 cases are currently pending with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, out of 26 persons who were awarded life sentences, five persons have already died serving their sentences – former JeI Ameer Ghulam Azam (91), who died on October 23, 2014; former BNP Minister Abdul Alim (83), who died on August 30, 2014; former JeI National Assembly member S.M. Yousuf Ali (83), who died on November 17, 2016; former JeI member Gazi Abdul Mannan (88), who died on December 19, 2016; and former ML member Mahidur Rahman (88), who died on May 21, 2018. 13 others were absconding and another eight were lodged in various jails of the country. Verdicts against 31 others are yet to be delivered.

Significantly, on October 17, 2019, ICT-1 kept the judgement of a war crime case in Rajshahi District Curia Advisari Vult [under the consideration of the Court] after both the prosecution and defence counsels completed their closing arguments. Confirming the matter, Prosecutor Muklesur Rahman Badal stated,

According to the charges, the accused was involved in the killing of at least 10 people, torture of two and looting and arson attacks on twelve houses in areas under Boalia Police Station of Rajshahi District. The tribunal framed charges against him on August 8, 2018.

Announcing the Government’s effort to better the condition of freedom fighters, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque on August 26, 2019, noted “The facilities of freedom fighters will be mentioned in the digital ID cards. About 22,000 freedom fighters will get a house each in 2020.” On June 29, 2019, the Liberation War Affairs Minister declared that the graveyards of the freedom fighters across the country would be preserved in the same pattern to show homage to them. According to the War Crimes Fact Finding Committee, Bangladesh, there are about 5,000 mass graves across the country, where the victims of the Pakistan Army and its collaborators’ genocide of 1971 are buried.

Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League-led Government has shown enormous courage in pressing ahead with the War Crime Trials. The latest verdicts against the guilty have once again reaffirmed the Government’s determination to honour its 2008 General Election pledge to bring the War Criminals of the 1971 genocide to justice. However, as a number of cases are pending with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, a long process remains before the trials and appeals can be brought to their eventual conclusion.

'Countering' Terror
Giriraj Bhattacharjee
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On October 10, 2019, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih gave his assent to new amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act, according to which, the Maldives Police Service is now authorized to make warrant-less arrests for certain criminal acts that constitute terrorism, as well as to conduct inspections and strip searches under specific circumstances.

On September 30, 2019, the amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Act was passed by the People’s Majlis (Parliament) in a special sitting. Out of the total 57 Members of Parliament (MPs) present, 52 voted in favour, while remaining five did not vote. There are a total of 87 MPs.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act was enacted in 1990. Later, in 2015, a new Act, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2015 was legislated, replacing the 1990 law.  Principally, the 2015 act added clauses criminalizing Maldivian nationals traveling overseas to join and fight for terrorist formations. At the same time, news report indicated that the broad definition of terrorism in the Act, including elements such as ‘causing a suspension of public services’, could in fact be used to target political dissidents.

On September 19, 2019, the Maldives Government made public the details of 17 terror organisations placed under the Anti-Terrorism Act on the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security. These groups included the Islamic State (IS), Al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT), Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), Abu Sayyaf (AS), Boko Haram (BH), Al-Shabaab, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan(TTP), Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), National Thowheed Jama'ath (NTJ), Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim (JMI) and Willayath As Seylani (WAS).

Further, on September 1, 2019, Husnu Suood, head of the Presidential Commission on Deaths and Disappearances, disclosed that Al Qaeda was responsible for three murders and one attempted murder in the country, between 2012 and 2017, during the period under the previous Governments led by Mohammed Waheed Hassan and Abdulla Yameen. It also indicated the role of former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen in “diverting” the Police investigation in the Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla abduction-cum-murder case. Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla was abducted and killed on August 8, 2014. Suood also claimed that the then Vice President Ahmed Adeeb could be charged with obstruction of justice. Notably, the commission commenced its work officially on November 21, 2018, with a two-year deadline to investigate 27 cases.

Indeed, a growing threat of Islamist terrorists using Maldives as a recruitment ground has been visible. On September 10, 2019, the United States (US)’s Department of the Treasuries Office of Foreign Affairs Control (OFAC) had designated a 35-years-old Maldivian, a ‘recruiter’ for Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-Khorasan), Mohamed Ameen, as a “terrorist leader”. The US Treasury Department notification describes Ameen as a “key leader for ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] in Syria, Afghanistan, and the Maldives [who] used to direct terrorist fighters to Syria, but now sends them to Afghanistan.” According to the OFAC press release Ameen, as of April 2019, was “actively engaged in leading ISIS recruitment” in the Maldives. The OFAC stated,

Worryingly, according to latest updates from local media, Ameen remains free in the Maldives.

Indeed, reports suggest that 200 Maldivians had joined IS in Syria and Iraq, producing one of the highest ratios in the world, in terms of a total population of just over half a million. Moreover, the Maldivian Government is worried about the fate of those citizens now in detention camps after the fall of IS held territories in Syria. On June 15, 2019, speaker Mohamad Nasheed cautioned,

Conspicuously, former President Mohamad Nasheed, addressing Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) on September 4, 2019, identified radical Islam as the ‘biggest threat’ and warned,

The radicals have made deep inroads into Maldivian society substantially because of contradictory state policies. There is, for instance, no answer as to why the Government took two diametrically opposite actions on the same day, October 10, 2019. While giving assent to new amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act – a welcome step – in a totally unwarranted step, the Solih Government asked Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) working on Human rights issues, to suspend its operations on the grounds that the NGO’s  report on radicalisation in Maldives had allegedly put “content slandering Islam and the Prophet Mohamed”. Though the full report has been removed, snippets of the report available online clearly demonstrate that it was critical of certain Islamic beliefs and questions the supremacy of the Faith, as taught to children in the island nation. One available snippet reads: “Holding the Prophet to a level of a demi-god regrettably blinds Muslims to the rights of others when it is Mohammed that is being satirised or even just drawn.” 

MDN, however, argued,

The Government’s action against MDN was preceded by a campaign launched by religious scholars after screenshots of ‘offensive sections’ in the report were widely shared on microblogging site Twitter under #DefendIslam and #banMDN and gained public attention in the first week of October. The religious scholars asked the Government to take action against the MDN.  Later, on October 7, 2019, President Ibrahim Solih promised to take to task MDN for “mocking” Islam. Understandably, MDN was forced to remove the report from its website following the furore and issued an apology for “unfortunate use of language in some sections of the report.” Incidentally, Aishath Nooshin Waheed, MDN's Chairperson, was appointed as a Counter-Terrorism Consultant by the President’s Office in September 2019; but resigned on October 6, 2019, following the controversy.

The political sensitivity around protests surrounding Islam is understandable in Maldives as back in 2012 the then elected Mohamad Nasheed Government eventually fell after the protests following the publication of a 30-page pamphlet by the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP), which had accused the Government of pursuing anti-Islam policies.

MDN’s suggestion that a diversion of public attention by extremist groups cannot be entirely ruled out, despite the fact that the Government has taken several initiatives against extremism and terrorism. Nevertheless, sensitive issues surrounding religion, if successfully sensatiolinsed beyond a point, could hinder further progress on crucial issues such as radicalization, by labeling the entire exercise a vendetta against the followers of traditional religion, by those following ‘western’ standards in public life.

The politically sensitive issue of ‘disrespecting’ Islam will have to be deftly handled by the Government, and not be allowed to undermine much needed initiatives against radicalisation and terrorism. The scourge of terrorism in Maldives needs to be dealt with in a coordinated and concerted way so that the nascent restoration of democracy can be sustained in the island nation.