The prime minister’s adviser, Alauddin Ahmed, on Friday said that Abdul Matin, the chief of the investigation body that is probing crimes against humanity during the War of Independence, was an activist of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the student front of Jamaat-e-Islami, in 1971.
   ‘The chief investigation officer, Abdul Matin, was the candidate for the presidency of a college unit of Chhatra Sangha. If such persons are chosen as investigators, what will be the fate of the trial?’ said Alauddin at a roundtable meeting organised by Vision24 at the Dhaka Reporters Unity.
   The Islami Chhatra Sangha, which changed its name in 1976 to Islami Chhatra Shibir and declared itself to be a new organisation, is accused of forming the notorious Al Badr and killing intellectuals at the fag end of the independence war.
   Alauddin said that war criminals are ensconced in different parts of the administration and are secretly hindering the trial process at every step. ‘They are even obstructing issuance of circulars,’ he added.
   Alauddin also said the Bangladesh missions abroad were not trying to create a global consensus in favour of trying the war criminals in Bangladesh. He also called on the younger generation to continue to pressure the government not to be lax in going ahead with the war crimes trials.
   The government on March 25 formed a tribunal to hold the trial of war criminals and also a seven-member investigation committee headed by former additional secretary Abdul Matin. Alauddin said that one of the members of the committee did not join office, expressing no confidence in Matin.
   Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal’s president Hasanul Huq Inu, Dhaka University’s former vice-chancellor AK Azad Chowdhury, Jatiya Party’s secretary-general Sheikh Shahidul Islam, HM Ershad-led faction of Jatiya Party’s presidium member Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, former minister Zafar Imam, former BNP lawmaker Akhtaruzzman, former ambassador Waliur Rahman, Bhorer Khagaj’s editor Shyamal Dutt and journalist Nayeem Nizam also addressed the roundtable on ‘Trial of war criminals in the context of Islam, law and international world’.

Source: new age