Tarique sumoned over \\\'Razakar\\\' comment

Several cases have been filed in courts across Bangladesh against BNP leader Tarique Rahman for his description of Bangabandhu Shekih Mujibur Rahman as ‘Razakar’. Four supporters of the ruling party filed the cases on Thursday in the courts of Dhaka, Chittagong and Comilla. The court of Commilla’s Additional Judicial Magistrate Shafikul Islam summoned the BNP Senior Vice Chairman in a libel suit filed by advocate Subir Nandi. Speaking at a programme in London on Tuesday, Tarique claimed that it would not have taken 9 months to defeat Pakistani occupation forces, if Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had started the war on March 7, 1971, with the help of the Bangalee army officers. According to him, the ‘small number’ of Pakistani soldiers then present in Bangladesh could have been easily defeated and the death toll and economic damage ‘could have been much less’. ‘After knowing all this, who can we solely blame? Sheikh Mujib. And we have called him a ‘Razakar’ after analysing the facts. We have labelled him as Pakbandhu (friend of Pakistan) on the basis of actual incidents,’ said Tarique, also the elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, according to a news agency.