Fresh Report24
Referring to the disgraceful inclusion of the indemnity for Bangabandhu’s killers in the fifth amendment to the constitution, Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy termed it “the beginning of the culture of impunity”.
“Today is notorious July 9. On this day in 1979, this indemnity act against humanity was passed in the parliament, initiating the culture of impunity in the country,” he posted on his verified Facebook account.
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Following the darkest chapter in independent Bangladesh, the assassination of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members on August 15, 1975, the indemnity ordinance was introduced on September 26 in the same year, paving the way for Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad to take over with the help of Bangabandhu’s killers, he added.
According to the indemnity ordinance, no one involved in Bangabandhu’s murder or the conspiracy could be tried in lower court, Supreme court, or court martial.
Ziaur Rahman turned the ordinance into an act, denying people’s basic rights to get justice, he further wrote.
The killers were protected and rewarded through the indemnity ordinance. Some of them were even endowed with embassy jobs while some became members of the parliament, he wrote in the post accompanied with a video.
The stigma was finally eradicated by the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, which scrapped the act on November 12, 1996, he concluded.
