Jamaat changes leader in bid to boost image

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA, DEC. 10. Bangladesh's main fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e- Islami, has changed its leadership to give a boost to its activities and also to remove the stigma of ``anti-independence forces'' that is attached to it mainly due to the old generation leadership.

The new ``Ameer'' (president) Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami (60), took over from Prof. Golam Azam, who stepped down as chief of the party ``on health grounds''. But there has not been any substantial change of attitude towards the Jamaat-e-Islami. Maulana Nizami took over as the new chief amid wide protests and demands that he too should be put on trial for war crimes he is alleged to have committed during the country's War of Liberation as head of the infamous para-military Al Badar force which, in collaboration with the Pakistan army, was responsible for the murders of hundreds of leading Bengali intellectuals.

Meanwhile, the delay in the departure of the controversial Pakistani diplomat, Mr. Irfan-ur-Rahman Raza, has once again caused public resentment with various groups staging demonstrations demanding his arrest. Expressing his annoyance over the delay, the Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdus Samad Azad, asked Pakistan to immediately take him out of Bangladesh. He also reiterated Bangladesh's demand for a Pakistani apology for the atrocities committed by its military in 1971.

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Section  : International
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