Bangladesh to strip 1971 war criminals of voting rights
4 Sept 2013 4:42 AM IST
In another blow to Bangladesh's fundamentalist Jammat-e-Islami, the cabinet on Monday decided to strip the voting rights of people convicted of ‘crimes against humanity’ during the 1971 liberation war.
‘The cabinet has approved the proposal to permanently erase from the voters list the names of those convicted under the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order 1972 and the International Crimes Act,’ Cabinet Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters.
He said the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina endorsed the draft law that suggested that the name of a person would be removed from the electoral roll or would not be included in the voters list if he or she was found guilty by the Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal under the two laws.
Jamaat-e-Islami was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence and the party was criticised for carrying out genocides and atrocities siding with the Pakistani troops.
The High Court recently banned the fundamentalist party from taking part in the next elections, saying it violated the country's secular democratic principles.
A special tribunal trying the war criminals earlier dubbed it a "criminal organisation" for its role in 1971 war while the verdict was currently being pending for review in the apex court.
Jamaat was banned soon after Bangladesh's independence while several of its leaders including the then chief of the party's East Pakistani wing Ghulam Azam was stripped off their citizenship.
But the party returned to politics after a coup on 15 August, 1975 which toppled the post independence Awami League government.
‘The cabinet has approved the proposal to permanently erase from the voters list the names of those convicted under the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order 1972 and the International Crimes Act,’ Cabinet Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters.
He said the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina endorsed the draft law that suggested that the name of a person would be removed from the electoral roll or would not be included in the voters list if he or she was found guilty by the Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal under the two laws.
Jamaat-e-Islami was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence and the party was criticised for carrying out genocides and atrocities siding with the Pakistani troops.
The High Court recently banned the fundamentalist party from taking part in the next elections, saying it violated the country's secular democratic principles.
A special tribunal trying the war criminals earlier dubbed it a "criminal organisation" for its role in 1971 war while the verdict was currently being pending for review in the apex court.
Jamaat was banned soon after Bangladesh's independence while several of its leaders including the then chief of the party's East Pakistani wing Ghulam Azam was stripped off their citizenship.
But the party returned to politics after a coup on 15 August, 1975 which toppled the post independence Awami League government.
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