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| Khawaja Khairuddin termed war criminal by Dhaka |
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Saturday, May 16, 2009
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: Khawaja Khairuddin, the late Muslim Leaguer from East Pakistan, is on top of the list prepared by the Bangladesh government to be tried as a war criminal with the help of UN experts.
His son, Khawaja Alqama, appointed by Pakistan as the new ambassador to Bangladesh, has also not been allowed as his credentials have not been approved by Dhaka since January. The approval to Alqama as the new Pak HC in Dhaka was put on hold by the new Awami League (AL) government after coming to power in January on the grounds that his father was against the creation of Bangladesh. This has already led to uneasiness between the two countries but the issue was buried quietly.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had approved the appointment of Khawaja Alqama, widely respected in the educational circles of Pakistan, in November 2008. But his official papers sent to Dhaka for formal approval through diplomatic channels were never given approval by the host government on the grounds that his father’s name was on the list of those whom the AL government wanted to put on trial.
Meanwhile, the sources said, the Bangladesh government was aggressively following the war crimes trials and had sent a clear message to the world that it meant business this time and would not hesitate in putting all those, responsible for crimes against the Bangladeshi people, on trial.
The sources said Pakistan was, however, strangely acting as it did not have any interest in the extraordinary process of war crimes trial dubbing it an internal matter of Bangladesh. But, the sources said Bangladesh had given clear indication to approach the international war tribunals to get those Pakistanis, both civilian and military accused of war crimes, repatriated to stand for trial. Bangladesh was trying to punish the leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), led by Khaleda Zia, through local courts with the help of the UN experts. But for Pakistan, it has planned to approach the International Court of Justice.
However, sources said, Pakistan might also ask Bangladesh to put the activists of Mukti Bahini on trial too who had committed crimes against the Pakistanis during the war.
Earlier, talking to The News, HC-designate in Dhaka Khawaja Alqama had revealed that his Muslim Leaguer father Khawaja Khairuddin was given general amnesty by Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman after the fall of Dhaka, in recognition of his efforts to bring peace there after the 1971 war, and he personally enjoys a lot of respect among the political sections of the country, where he was born.
Alqama is presently working as a dean at Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan. Alqama said it was wrong to assume that he or his father were not given respect in Dhaka and that his appointment might be an unpleasant diplomatic move on the part of Pakistan.
Alqama said he himself had studied in Dhaka and after doing FA, he came to the Government College Lahore. Meanwhile, the 1971 broke out. His father was in Dhaka and was arrested and put in jail. Later, Sheikh Mujeeb himself announced amnesty for his father.
Alqama said he had just visited the war crimes charges which were brought against his father and said he was simply accused of forming peace committees, meeting General Tikka Khan and Air Marshal Asghar Khan. He said these were not serious charges in nature as his father was trying to bring peace to the Bengalis. He said we needed to understand that Khawaja Khairuddin had been trying to bring peace to the whole region to save human lives and this was his contribution in those turbulent times. He said after release from jail, his father left Dhaka for London and then came to Pakistan.
Later, in 1990, when Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was the caretaker prime minister, his father visited Bangladesh with an official delegation and he was given a big response by his own Bengali fellows. His father stayed in Dhaka for one month.
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