Dhaka, Sep 18 (SocialNews.XYZ) Several leaders of Bangladesh’s radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami had repeatedly urged the party’s top leadership to issue a formal and unconditional apology for opposing the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971. Despite multiple drafts being prepared over the years, the efforts failed to materialise amid resistance from influential figures within the party, local media reported, citing the posthumous memoir of former Jamaat leader Abdur Razzaq, who died in May 2025.
Razzaq, who served as Jamaat’s Assistant Secretary General from 2003 to 2019 before quitting the party, has laid bare the internal rifts within its top leadership in his posthumous memoir, 'Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami: Its History and Politics,' set to be formally launched on Friday.
In the memoir, he recounted how the question of an apology evolved over more than two decades, including the arguments for and against it and the drafts prepared at different stages, Bangladesh’s leading newspaper 'The Daily Star' reported.
The matter was first raised in 1994, ahead of a public speech by then Jamaat leader Ghulam Azam, a central figure in opposing the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War after the Supreme Court restored his Bangladeshi citizenship. Further attempts to address the issue followed between 2001 and 2016.
“Each time an attempt was made, certain powerful figures within the Jamaat establishment intervened and held the party back. In the end, the new Ameer did not address the issue. As in the past, the matter was once again relegated to cold storage,” Razzaq wrote, highlighting the repeated attempts to resolve the issue.
Four years after the draft apology was prepared, he said, the issue was finally taken up by the Jamaat’s Working Committee in October 2005.
Razzaq recalled being particularly disconcerted by the views expressed by two senior party members.
Quoting a former Jamaat lawmaker, he wrote: “If we apologise, Pakistan will become displeased with us.”
Additionally, the former head of Jamaat’s Education wing said, “In Bangladeshi politics, this is not an issue at all. Twice a year, in March (the month of independence) and December (the month of victory), this issue comes up for public discussion only to die out soon after. To discuss this issue in the Working Committee would be a waste of the committee’s (valuable) time.”
Razzaq further described the July-August 2024 uprising as a turning point in Bangladesh’s political landscape. He noted that Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman had recently faced media interviews with composure, confidence and dignity.
However, he said the lack of a clear position from the current Jamaat leadership on the actions of its predecessors more than five decades ago made Rahman’s responses naturally unconvincing.
“Jamaat’s role in 1971 remains its Achilles heel,” wrote Razzaq.
Source: IANS
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