Motiur Rahman Nizami  (Moitya Dalal)

Motiur Nizami, 2004: the mastermind of all political killings and patron of various Mujahedin forces and Jihadist terrorist cells

The chief of operations of the al-Badr (death squad) forces, Motiur Rahaman Nizami is responsible for the murder of thousands of Bengalis involved in or connected to the liberation war. Son of Khondokar Lutfar Rahman of Monmothpur village under Sathia PS in Pabna district, Motiur has nothing to do with the title Nizami (Nizam means aristocrat i.e. Nizam of Hyderabad, India) at all . Like his other Islamist peers Motiur took up his title Nizami in order to make his name sound respectable, conceal his lowly origin and his base nature. The people of his village hated him so much for his shameless betrayal of his own countrymen that they still call him Moitya Dalal (traitor). Motiur is presently the minister for industries in Khaleda Zia's cabinet. 

Motiur Nizami's War Crimes in 1971

Motiur carried out a wide range of activities against the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. Motiur was the president of Jamat's youth front, the Islami Chhatra Sangha (now known as Islami Chhatra Shibir or the Islamic Students' Association). Under Motiur's direct supervision and leadership, the al-Badr (para-militia) force was organised in order to eliminate the freedom fighters and supporters of liberation movement. Motiur was the commander-in-chief of al- Badr forces. Apart from killing the freedom fighters and supporters of liberation movement, the aim of ideological warfare waged by the al-Badr forces was to Islamization (Talibanisation) of Bangladesh. One of the main objectives of al-Badr forces was to short list the secular Bangalee intellectuals and eliminate them. Horrifying stories of killing of intellectuals by Motiur's al-badr forces were published in newspapers, home and abroad, during and after the liberation war.

1. During the war Motiur acted as one of the top Jamati ideologues instigating his cohorts and followers by means of public speech and newspaper articles to support the Pakistani occupation army in killing the freedom fighters and supporters of liberation war. In one of the issues of Daily Sangram, the Jamati mouth piece, Motiur wrote : The day is not far away when the young men of al-Badr, hand in hand with the armed forces, will defeat the Hindu forces (enemies) and raise the victorious banner of Islam all over the world, after the destruction of India. (Daily Sangram Nov 14, 1971)

2. On April 12, 1971, Motiur joined Gholam Azam and other leading collaborators such as Sabur Khan to lead a procession in Dhaka to demonstrate their support for Pakistan. The procession, under the banner of peace committee ended with a special prayer for the victory of Pakistan. (Daily Sangram April 13, 1971).

3. In Jessore, a bordering district, Motiur, in addressing the assembly of the para militia forces at the district head quarter of the Razakar force, said: In this hour of national crisis, it is the duty of every razakar to carry out his national duties to eliminate those who are engaged in war against Pakistan and Islam. (Daily Sangram Sept 15, 1971)

3. People from Motiur's home district, Pabna, have brought allegations against Motiur's direct involvement in killing, rape, arson and lootings. One such person is Aminul Islam Dablu of Brishlika village under the Bera Police Station (in Bangladesh, due to the colonial legacy, all administrative units below districts are organised under a police station, PS, hence all sub-districts are called Thana or PS). Dablu told the commission that his father Mohamed Sohrab Ali was killed on the orders of Motiur. Dablu further said that a number of people from the area were killed on Motiur's orders such as: Profulla Pramanik, Bhadu Pramanik, Manu Pramanik and Shashthi Pramanik. Dablu said there were many eye witnesses to those killings.

4. Abdul Quddus, a freedom fighter from Madhabpur village in Pabna, once spent two weeks in an al-Badr torture cell following his arrest in an uneven war. Quddus said he heard plans to kill freedom fighters and local supporters of the war were discussed and drawn up by al-Badr men under Motiur's supervision.

5. On November 26 a razakar commander named Sattar took Pakistani troops to the Dhulaupara village where 30 freedom fighters were arrested and subsequently killed. As per Quddus's testimony, Sattar carried out the execution on Motiur's order. Quddus told the commission that he managed to attend a secret meeting of al-Badr forces which Motiur presided and gave instructions to kill freedom fighters. In the meeting the al-Badr men listed the houses of Awami League leaders and the bases and hide-outs of the freedom fighters. Motiur sternly ordered his men to finish off Awami League supporters and possible bases and safe houses being used by freedom fighters were identified. Quddus said Motiur gave orders to finish off Awami League supporters and destroy bases of the freedom fighters. The day after the meeting, Al-Badr forces, in cooperation with Razakars, surrounded Brishlika village and burnt it to the ground.

6. Quddus also said Motiur himself bayoneted to death one Bateswar Saha of Madhabpur village in Sathia PS.

7. In Pabna Motiur led the killing of a young freedom fighter Latif and his group. Latif was only 19 years old and a first year student of Pabna Edward College. Latif's small group was captured by the Pakistani occupation army in an uneven combat at Dhuliuri. They were then handed over to Motiur's gang for execution. Motiur's lieutenants publicly slew Latif's co-fighters with big camp knifes especially used for slaughtering bulls for sacrifice (during Islamic festival called korbani) as a part of Islamic ritual. The bastards in Motiur's group celebrated the killing of the captured freedom fighters with cannibalistic zeal. They gouged Latif's eyes, chopped off his genitalia and tied his dead body on a stick at Shanthia (Badshah, a socialist activist was killed in the same way by one of Motiur's top killer gang-JMJB in May 2004, please see Islamist Extremism in Bangladesh page). Latif's father Sufian Paramanik is a witness to his son's brutal murder and the razakars' frenzied outburst of pleasure in killing the brave sons of the soil.

8. Latif's brother Shahjahan Ali, a freedom fighter himself from Madhabpur village, nearly met the same fate. After slaughtering Shahjahan, along with his co-fighters, in Islamic manner, Motiur's people left him taking him for dead. But Shahjahan was a die hard freedom fighter. The slayer's knife could not take his life. Deadly wounded, Shahjahan lay on ground for hours. Foxes smelled at him, dogs bit him. Fortunately his relatives came by before it was too late and saved his life. Motiur's knife could not take Shahjahan's life, but took away his voice: now Shahjahan is paralyzed and can't talk carrying a big scar on his throat-Motiur's  kiss of death.

Verifiable list of people killed by Motiur and his al-Badr forces:

In 1971 Motiur was personally involved in killing of hundreds of Hindus and confiscating their assets and properties. By confiscation and extortion of large amount of money, jewellery and assets from the wealthy Hindu families, Motiur became a millionaire within nine months of the war. During the Sheikh Mujib government (1971-75) Motiur went underground in order to escape conviction as a war criminal. In 1976, as a part of General Zia's razakar rehabilitation program, Motiur resurfaced and took charge as the second in charge of Jamat-e-Islam. Motiur is presently the chief of Jamat-e-Islam.

Besides his involvement in assassination, murder, extortion and confiscation, Nizami is also committed to establish Jamati ideological hegemony (a Maududi version of Islamic fundamentalism) to perpetuate the Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh. Since 1976, thanks to the political backing of the so-called freedom fighter Gen Zia and financial generosity of the Islamic countries like Saudi Arab, Iran and Libya, Motiur and his gang invested millions of dollars to open hundreds of Islamic kindergartens around the country. The syllabi and curricula of those kindergartens are based on the precepts of Maudoodi, the spiritual guru of Jamat-e-Islam. This network of schools enabled Jamat-e-Islam to sustain a huge number of their cadres as employees of those schools. From organizational point of view, those schools are a big success for Jamat-e-Islam: it secured them a sustaining source of income (education is the most thriving business in Bangladeshi cities) and employment for its cadres in education industry. But intellectually those schools cripple the students forever as they teach pre Copernican /Ptolemaic world views, orient them to alien Arabic culture and emotionally invest them with jejune Islamic sentiments. 

Jamat's goal to render intellectual bankruptcy is not confined to pre school stage only. Motiur successfully expanded its mission to the tertiary level as well. Motiur's wife founded an English medium college in the most aristocratic residential area in Dhaka city. The college boasts of having international educational standard as its name indicates " Manarat International College". The off-springs of the Muslim Bangladeshi elites swarm into that so-called English medium college. Manarat is an English medium college in the limited sense that it disseminates its knowledge in English language. But what constitutes its epistemological corpus? Koran and all forms of Arabic medieval precepts. The graduates from Manarat college are apparently smart (as the definition of smart in Bangladesh means ability to speak trash in English) but intellectually and attitudinally medieval: perfect elements for Islamic fundamentalism. Politically Gholam Azams and Mainuddins are feared monsters, but culturally Motiur's and Saidi's are more corrosive and their impact on society is far reaching.

Bangla version of Nizami's war crime report

Other crimes by Motiur Nizami

1. After the election in 2001, Motiur Nizami's armed men forced the members of 20 Hindu families in Pagla Haldar Para, part of Nizami's constituency,  to eat beef. (Daily Janakantha 10 Oct 2004)
2. Motiur's wife, using political influence took massive loans from all the major banks and opened an English medium college, Manarat, in the aristocratic area of Dhaka city. Koran and other Islamic scriptural texts are taught there ass context for learning English language. The Islamic discourses created and promoted thus an elite class has been fostered who are intellectually barren and culturally anti-Bangalee.
3. The biggest arms smuggling in Bangladesh was done under the jurisdiction of Nizami. A government owned wharf belonging to the ministry of Industry headed by Motiur Nizami was used to receive and unload the arms. As per the report published in Bhorer Kagoj, a leading Bangla daily, ten trucks were hired by the chief of the special branches of police (DB) of Chittagong division to carry the arms to the secret locations. The DB chief is well connected to Motiur Nizami. The govt investigation was called off when the Jamati link to arms smuggling was discovered and the whole issue has since been put under the carpet. 

Nizami eyes ‘long-term plan’ of Islamic state

Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh chief Matiur Rahman Nizami said the party has achieved its short-term goal while asking the party colleagues to work for achieving the long-term program to turn Bangladesh into an Islamic state.

Implying that their short-term target was to come to the mainstream of politics, Nizami said that the ‘party’s short-term goal is already achieved’. ‘Now we have to make progress in achieving the long-term goal to turn Bangladesh into an Islamic state,’ Nizami, told over 15,000 delegates attending the party’s conference from Dhaka division.

At the technical session of the conference, held Paltan Maidan in Dhaka, he emphasised working at a slow pace and urged Jamaat activists to increase number of friends and reduce enemies to achieve long-term goal of the party. ‘Friendship with every body and enmity with none is now our strategy,’ he said. He said Jamaat has not yet been successful to influence some ‘microscopic groups’ of the capital and urged party activists to involve doctors, engineers, lawyers and businessmen of the city with Jamaat’s professional organisations to strengthen the ‘Islamic movement.’ Earlier during the inauguration of the conference, the Jamaat chief termed the Awami League an anti-Islamic force and described why the party joined the four-party alliance in 2000. ‘We joined the alliance to defeat the anti-Islamic forces,’ Nizami said, inaugurating the representatives’ conference of his party, a component of the four-party ruling alliance, and called upon his party men to remain with the alliance.
In the working session in the afternoon, he elaborated his plan to establish Islam in the country saying that the party should go slow at this stage.

Nayeb-e-amir of Jamaat Maulana Maqbul Ahmed echoed Nizami, saying that the party joined alliance to prevent Awami League from going to power. ‘If we could not resist the Awami League today, you would not be able to hold meeting in cool head.’ He called on the intra-party critics to refrain from criticising party decisions, urging them to accept any decision ‘without any question.’ Another nayeb-e-amir, Professor Nazir Ahmed, said if a unit of Jamaat could be set up in every village, Islam would be established ‘not only for five or 10 years rather for ever.’
 

In his inaugural speech, Nizami said, ‘We never said we are going to power to establish Islam when we joined the four-party alliance. Our main objective was to put obstacles before the Awami league so that it cannot go to power.’ He feared if the Awami League goes to power in future, they may not allow Jamaat’s politics in the country. Pointing to the dispute with Islamic Oikya Jote over fixing of the venue of a meeting, he said the statement of the Jote chief was aimed at creating an unwanted and anarchic situation. By no means, this will help the Muslim community,’ he said.

Other writings on Motiur Nizami

2. Click here to read Nizami's statement on Birshreshtha Flt Lt Matiur Rahman
3. Click here for the list of intellectuals killed by Nizami's men in 1971
4. Maulana Rahmat Ali Bhisti: the portrait of a Jamati divine by Prof Humayun Azad
5. Bangla version of Public Inquiry Commission on report on warcriminals of Bangladesh