Dhaka, Nov.26 : The Ekattorer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee, a forum for promoting a secular Bangladesh and demanding the trial of War Criminals of 1971, today sent a list of 10 notorious war criminals to all foreign missions in Dhaka requesting them not to issue visas to the listed war criminals for travelling to any foreign country, and to prevent them from collecting funds.

The committee also requested the foreign missions not to give them political asylum and exclude their names from the list of the invitees to the missions. Of the listed war criminals, most of them are currently associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.

The listed war criminals are--Golam Azam, former chief of Jamaat, Motiur Rahman Nizami, current chief of Jamaat, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, secretary general of Jamaat. Central leaders of Jamaat are Muhammad Quamaruzzaman, Abdul Quader Molla, Abdus Sobhan and Delwar Hossain Sydee while ABM Khaleq Majumder, a former Jamaat leader. Those detained are Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, parliamentary affairs adviser to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Mir Kashim Ali.

"These war criminals frequently travel abroad and their main objectives are to propagate and spread hatred against the western world, liberal democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and to raise funds for their terrorist organisations," argued a letter signed by Kabir Chowdhury, the chairman of the advisory committee of the forum and Shahriar Kabir, its acting president.

During the liberation war, these war criminals carried out a wide range of activities against the war of independence and launched a massacre with the assistance of Pakistan Army in 1971. Many of these war criminals were involved in the killing of intellectuals prior to country achieving its independence.

The letter said after the end of the war on December 16, 1971, some special tribunals were set up for the trial of these war criminals. But with the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975, all criminals cases instituted against the war criminals were kept in abeyance through an ordinance.

"As a result, all the war criminals, including the hardened ones, have so far escaped trial. Being relieved of the war crime charges, they started re-organising under the banner of Jamaat-e-Islami. This time, Jamaat surreptitiously adopted the strategy for forming militant wings with different names like Harkatul Zihad, JMB, JMJB and son on having links with other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East," the letter said.

On its part, the government has refused to take action against these war criminals. (ANI)