Motiur Rahman Nizami (Bengali: মতিউর রহমান নিজামী), (born 31 March 1943) is the current chief (
Ameer) of the
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, which is the largest
Islamic political party in
Bangladesh.
Jamaat and Al-Badr activist
Nizami rose in the ranks of the Jamaat-e-Islami in
East Pakistan in the 1960s, after being a leader of a student organization, Islamic Chhatro Shango (now
Islami Chhatro Shibir). During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami actively supported the cause of
West Pakistan and formed the
Al-Badr Force in which he acted as the supreme commander of the Al-Badr Militia.
[1]
As the leader of Al-Badr, Nizami advocated deadly violence against
minority Hindus, and in an article in the Daily Sangram published in 14
November 1971, Nizami claimed, "It is our conviction that the day is not
far off when, standing side by side with our armed forces, our youth
will raise the victorious flag of Islam the world over by defeating the
Hindu Army and finishing off Hindustan".
[2][3]
On Nizamis orders, The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape,
extortion, loot and specially capturing and killing of Bengalis who
supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December
14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with
Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them.
[4][5][6] Al-Badar militia also helped Pakistany forces to fight against the Freedom Fighters of Bangladesh Liberation War.
Political career
After taking over the rule of Bangladesh in 1975,
Ziaur Rahman
allowed democratic political parties to organise themselves, which had
been banned since March of the same year. Under the rule of
Ziaur Rahman, top Jamaat leaders such as
Ghulam Azam
and Nizami whose party were banned by the subsequent government after
liberation, returned to Bangladesh in 1978 and revived the Jamaat party.
Nizami emerged as a key leader of the Jamaat, organising the
Islami Chhatra Shibir (Jammat Students Organisation), which serves as the youth wing of the Jamaat. In 1991, he was elected as a
Member of Parliament, representing Jamaat-e-Islami for the constituency of
Pabna-1, and was Jamaat's Parliamentary Party leader during until 1994.
[7]
However, during the
1996 elections, he lost out to both the candidates for the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the
Awami League
in his constituency, and Professor Abu Sayed of the Awami League
replaced him. Nizami took over as the Ameer from Ghulam Azam in 2001.
[8]
In the same year, representing his party as part of a four-party
alliance including BNP, he won in Pabna-1, receiving 57.68% of the
votes.
[9] Nizami served as the Industrial Minister from 2003 to 2006, after a two-year term as the Minister of Agriculture.
Nizami was defeated in the
general election
held on 29 December 2008 as a candidate of 4-party alliance, losing his
seat for Pabna-1 to Md. Shamsul Haque by 8.2%. He received 45.6% of the
votes, out of which 41.03% votes were from BNP supporters. His opponent
representing the Awami League won, having 53.8%.
Controversies
War crimes
During the
Bangladesh Liberation War, he is alleged to have acted as the supreme commander of the
Al-Badr
militia, which had allegedly taken part in various war crimes including
killing of hundreds of intellectuals around the country. His misdoings
were finally brought into attention in the year 2009, when the Awami
League reopened the cases pending against him.
[citation needed]
Allegations of corruption
The Anti-corruption Commission of Bangladesh indicted Nizami on the
GATCO Corruption case, in which he along with several other politicians
are alleged to have granted illegally a container-depot contract to the
local firm GATCO.
[10] A warrant was issued to arrest Nizami along with 12 others on May 15, 2008.
Nizami was accused of conspiring with 12 other politicians to award
the contract to GATCO despite the fact that GATCO did not meed the
conditions of the tender. The case filed by the Anti-corruption
Commission of Bangladesh Govt. alleges that, the deal with GATCO caused a
total loss of more than 100 million
Bangladeshi Taka to the Government.
[11] Nizami denied the charges, which he has said are politically motivated.
[12] He was released after two months on bail.
Hurting religious sentiments
Dhaka Jamaat chief Rafiqul Islam, in a public speech on March 17, 2010, compared the tortured life of the Prophet
Muhammad of
Islam
propagating truth in the face of persecution with the life of Nizami,
who was facing the same. On March 21, Bangladesh Tariqat Federation sued
Rafiqul, Nizami and other Jamaat members for hurting Islamic sentiments
of the masses by comparing Nizami with the Prophet
[13].
Nizami, along with 3 other senior Jamaat leaders, were arrested on
such accusations on March 29, 2010, and are still awaiting trial.
[14]
Arms smuggling case
Nizami is accused for aiding the smuggling of
ten trucks of arms from the Chittagong port on 1 April 2004,
[15] supposedly supplied by Pakistan to the
ULFA insurgents in
Assam,
India. Nizami was the Industries Minister during that time.
He is currently in prison, and has been shown arrested for the
smuggling, along with other crimes described above. His recent bail
petition on 7 September 2011 was denied.
[15]
See also
Bangladesh slaps travel ban on war crime suspects
DHAKA |
Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:54pm IST
(Reuters) - Bangladesh imposed a travel
ban on Monday on 40 people, mostly leaders of the opposition
Jamaat-e-Islami party, over alleged war crimes during the country's war
of independence four decades ago.
The party has denied
charges that it collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971
war, and has accused the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of
concocting war crimes charges to try to undermine it.
Jamaat is the main ally of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist
Party of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, and the country's
largest Islamic political party.
Those banned from leaving the country included Jamaat chief Motiur
Rahman Nizami, his deputy Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, and another key
leader, Delwar Hossain Saidee, who were arrested last month on charges
ranging from obstructing police to sedition.
Immigration officials at Dhaka's Hazrat Shah Jalal international
airport said they had received a list of 40 people with photographs,
along with instructions from the government not to allow them to leave
the country.
Police said the same list was also posted at other international airports, seaports and border transit points.
The government plans to begin war crimes trials soon, and police
said some suspects including former Jamaat chief Golam Azam, had been
preparing to flee the country.
Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, won independence with India's help
in December 1971 following a nine-month war against Pakistan. Around 3
million people were killed and thousands of women raped.
Authorities also filed charges on Monday against more than 800
paramilitary troops accused of involvement in a mutiny last year. The
charges include murder, torture and concealing the corpses of those
killed, an investigating officer said.
The mutineers killed 74 people including 57 army officers commanding
the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles in a dispute over wages and the
command structure.
The mutiny
occurred less than two months after Hasina returned to power in January
2009 after polls that ended two years of rule by an army-backed interim
authority. One of her election pledges was putting war criminals on
trial.
The mutiny threatened
to undermine Hasina's government and some thought it might lead the
military to try to take back power. But the authorities ended the
rebellion within two days through negotiations. More than 2,300
paramilitary soldiers were detained in Dhaka, of whom 801 were charged
on Monday.
