India deliberately dragged into Bangladesh war crimes trial

New Delhi: At a time when the Awami League-led government in Bangladesh is successfully conducting the war crimes trials and erasing the stigma, India's foreign diplomacy was allegedly dragged into the issue.

Abdul Awal Thakur, a noted journalist in Bangladesh, said that Bangladesh attached more importance to India than any other foreign nation or global body.

Speaking to Radio Tehran on the hanging of Bangladeshi Nationalist Party stalwart Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury for charges of war crimes, he said, global bodies including UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had expressed deep concerned over the credibility of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). Notably, the ICT was set by the Sheikh Hasina-led government to try the persons allegedly involved with war crimes committed during the 1971 War of Liberation.

He mentioned that the Pakistan government is on the verge of summoning the Bangladeshi High Commissioner in Islamabad regarding the hanging. However, media reports suggested that both India and China, both close neighbours of Bangladesh, are backing the trial process (read death penalty).

Abdul Awal Thakur said the Sino-Bangla equation has metamorphosed since the liberation war in 1971. Undoubtedly, Pakistan is a time-tested ally of China but trade diplomacy has changed attitudes of the Communist Party of China.

Thakur further said China knows that the Sheikh Hasina-led government was genuflected towards India as it was due to efforts of New Delhi that Awami League came to power and still clinging to the throne. To expand trade and secure its international boundaries, China is bound to keep a cordial relation with Bangladesh, said Thakur, adding that Beijing's relation with New Delhi and Dhaka is not cordial.

Thakur noted that Bangladesh is a good market for Chinese goods and any bitterness regarding the war crimes trial will not go down well with the present Bangladesh government.

Despite, people in Bangladesh raising questions regarding the standards of the ICT, the government in Bangladesh went forward with the trial process and implementing the verdicts (mostly death penalties)with the backing from India, Thakur alleged.

(With inputs from www.irib.ir)