Delwar Hussain's Death Does Not Erase the Memories of War Crimes He Committed

By New Age Islam Staff Writer 25 August 2023 He Had Cultivated An Image Of A Islamic Preacher And Scholar Of Quran. Main Points: 1. He was found guilty in two counts of charges by the War Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh. 1. 2.Sheikh Hasina government had come to power with the promise of trying war criminals. 2. He was convicted for murder, arson and rape. 3. 4.He was also accused of forcibly converting 100-150 Hindus. 4. He was an MP in the Khaleda Zia government. ----- Delwar Hossain Sayeedi | Wikimedia commons ----- Bangladesh Jamaat Islami's Vice-Chairman and former MP of Bangladesh died on 14th August, 2023, ironically on the Independence Day of Pakistan while in prison of heart attack. He was serving life sentence for his crimes committed during Bangladesh's war for independence. Though he was a Bengali Muslim, he was against the idea of Bangladesh. He took active part in the military action against the people of the East Pakistan as a member of a paramilitary force called Razakar and collaborated with the Pakistani army in the war crimes against the Bengali speaking community comprising both Hindus and Muslims. He was made an accused on 20 charges and was convicted in eight. He was accused of murder of Kutti and Bisabali and setting fire to Hindu households in Pirojpur. He was also accused of abducting three sisters of one Gauranga Saha and handing them over to the Pakistani army as sex slaves. The girls were returned after three days. He was also accused of forcibly converting 100-150 Hindus to Islam. The government executed 6 war criminals of which 5 were Jamaat Islami leaders and one a BNP leader. He was popularly known as Delia Razakar and was very active during the Pakistan army's brutal operation in 1971. The Razakars identified freedom fighters and helped army to capture them. In 2019, Bangladesh belatedly formed the war crimes tribunal at the demand of the people who long wanted the war criminals to brought to book. Since, Bangladesh was mostly ruled by dictators and Bangladesh National Party which was a political ally of Jamaat Islami, the legal action against the wr criminals could not take place. Sheikh Hasina launched the WCT in 2009 after she came to power with a full majority. In the BNP government, Delwar Hussain Sayeedi was a member of Parliament and an influential leader in the government. The son of a madrasa teacher, he later on became a Islamic scholar and preacher and established himself as a scholar of Quran. He represented Bangladesh in international events. He attended Iran's first revolution anniversary celebrations in 1982. Islamic Circle of North America awarded him the title Allama. He was awarded death sentence in 2013. Soon after his conviction, his followers launched a glorification campaign in his favour. A follower posted an image of Delia Razakar (Delwar Hussain Sayeedi) imposed on moon and circulated the rumour that his face was seen on the moon. The image and the rumour became viral on social media. His death sentence was commuted to life sentence in 2014. In 2017, another plea was filed for the review of the Supreme Court verdict but the Supreme Court upheld the verdict. Before his conviction, Delwar was added to the No-Fly list of the United States of America Terrorists Screening Centre. This lst was established to prevent suspected radicals from entering from flying into the US. He was added to the list in 2004. In 2008, he was accused of hurting religious sentiments and causing disturbance. He was known as a firebrand preacher. The Pakistan army's crackdown on Bangladeshi people was one of the most brutal and most heinous operation in human history. Millions of innocent people were killed, mostly Muslims by the army of a self-proclaimed Islamic country. Entire villages were destroyed and millions of women were raped by the Pakistani army and their Bangladeshi collaborators called Razakars. The Razakars were mainly cadre of Jamaat Islami Pakistan. Delwar Hussain Sayeedi was one of them. They opposed the idea of Bangladesh. In their eyes, those who demanded Bangladesh were Kafirs and therefore Wajib ull Qatl (worthy to be killed) . Their women were sex slaves. Had not Indian army intervened, Pakistan army would have slaughtered other millions and suppressed their movement in a very brutal manner and politically and economically, they would have to live like slaves in Pakistan. With the help of India, Bangladesh came into existence and made remarkable progress as a nation. They have progress in economic and political fields. Their economic growth is remarkable and have left Pakistan way behind. Bangladesh has made all this progress since Shaikh Hasina came to power and cleared the terrorism baggage it had been carrying since Gen. Ershad' s regime. Khaleda Zia 's government in alliance with Jamaat Islami Bangladesh followed its foreign policy determined by Pakistan and therefore, terrorism was used as a tool to disturb the peace in the region. Bangladesh became a terrorism hub and its land was allowed to be used by ULFA of India against subversive a activities in India. Sheikh Hasina herself was the target of a terrorist attack but she survived while other party members and workers died. Bangla Bhai, the most dreaded terrorist of Bangladesh emerged during Khaleda Zia government. He had executed 500 simultaneous low intensity blasts in the entire country to his wide network and strength. He was executed after Shaikh Hasina came to power. Therefore, the death of Delwar Husain Sayeedi and the execution of other war criminals and terrorists during Shaikh Hasina has paved the way of progress, peace and security of not only Bangladesh but for the entire region. Those who have been glorifying these war criminals and terrorists are not the true representatives of Bangladeshi people but a coterie of sectarian and extremist ideology. ----- War Criminal Delwar Hossain Was Against Bangladesh. Why Is His Face On The Moon Now? By Deep Halder 22 August, 2023 Soon after the death of Naib Amir or the spiritual head of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, on 14 August, a picture of his face superimposed on the moon began circulating on various social media platforms in Bangladesh. It is ironic that a man who was against the very idea of Bangladesh was being venerated like this. His followers, quite a substantial number in the country given the outpouring of grief on social media and the size of the crowd that came to his burial at his hometown in coastal Pirojpur district, made the moon picture widely popular on social media, inviting both online admiration and derision. This was not the first time that Sayeedi’s face had appeared on the moon. His supporters had claimed in 2013 that Muslims from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia saw his face pasted on the moon and it is God’s sign that Sayeedi is a true devotee. “To draw attention of the people who do not use internet, announcements were made through loudspeakers of mosques about the picture, report our correspondents from Chittagong, Rajshahi and Bogra. Besides, many people called The Daily Star staff members from different districts to verify if such a moon was really sighted,” The Daily Star had reported on 4 March 2013. Meanwhile, grief turned into anti-government protests as supporters mourned Sayeedi. “We won’t let the blood of Sayedee go in vain,” supporters shouted. Many blamed the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which is preparing for general elections slated for January, reported AFP on 15 August. One person was also reportedly killed during a confrontation between police and a group attempting to hold a memorial ceremony for Sayeedi. Who was Delwar Hossain Sayeedi? The answer to this question will depend on who you ask in Bangladesh. Sayeedi was the vice president of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami. He was Naib Amir or the spiritual head of the Islamist party since 2009. His Islamic teachings had attracted a substantial number of followers in his lifetime. To the government of the day and the courts of the country, though, Sayeedi was nothing more than a convicted war criminal who needed to be locked up for life. In 2013, he was given the death penalty on two counts of crimes against humanity by the war crimes tribunal. He was accused of murder, arson and rape. “Known as ‘Deilya Razakar’ in 1971, Sayeedi was found guilty of committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War… These include the murder of Bisabali and arson in a Hindu neighbourhood, abduction and rape of three sisters of Gauranga Saha, who was a prosecution witness and identified Sayedee as the man who had handed over his sisters to the Pakistani army to be taken away as sex slaves. They were returned after three days,” bdnews24.com reported on 31 March 2015, when the Supreme Court of Bangladesh released the full verdict. A year later, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. But before the war crimes tribunal was set up in 2019 to investigate and prosecute suspects for the genocide committed in 1971 by the Pakistan army and their local collaborators, Sayeedi was an elected member of parliament from 1996 to 2008. Internationally, Sayeedi was a man of much prominence. In 1982, on the invitation of Iran’s supreme leader Imam Syed Ali Hussaini Khomeini, Sayeedi visited Tehran to celebrate Iran’s first revolution anniversary. In 1991, he joined the Kuwait–Iraq war memorial meeting at the invitation of the Saudi king Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. In 1991, the Islamic Circle of North America awarded him the title “Allama” (profound scholar). In 1993, Sayeedi was awarded the “Grand Marshal” medal at the American Muslim Day Parade Conference in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York. Against The Very Idea Of Bangladesh It is ironic that Sayedee breathed his last at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University named after the founder of Bangladesh. The 1971 war of liberation was fought to dehyphenate East Pakistan from West Pakistan and to establish a socio-cultural and linguistic identity over a religious identity. In the bloody war that followed, if Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib stood at one corner, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi stood at exactly the opposite. A Razakar or a member of a Islamic paramilitary volunteer force, Sayeedi sided with the Pakistani army and went against his own people, the Bengalis, to stop East Pakistan from becoming Bangladesh. He and people like him failed. But the tragedy of modern Bangladesh is that the cult of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi is not over. Even though Bangladesh was created, Sheikh Mujib was murdered on 15 August 1975 along with most of his family members, by forces inimical to the idea of Bangladesh. Many Sayeedis continue to thrive and expand their influence in Bangladesh against what Bangladesh was supposed to be. It is no wonder that the country’s principal opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has officially expressed condolences on his death. “Sayeedi’s views on women and minorities are despicable to say the least. He was a convicted war criminal who sided with forces that threaten to disrupt Bangladesh till date. No death should be celebrated, but Sayedee’s hopefully ends a dark chapter in Bangladesh’s history,” Sahidul Hasan Khokon, Bangladeshi journalist, told ThePrint. The photoshopped image of Sayeedi’s face on the moon may be fodder for memes, but his cult is not funny. ---- Views are personal. (Edited by Ratan Priya) Source: War Criminal Delwar Hossain Was Against Bangladesh. Why Is His Face On The Moon Now? URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/delwar-hussain-death-war-crimes/d/130521 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism