Lamenting the disgraceful inclusion of the indemnity of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's killers in the fifth amendment to the constitution, Prime Minister's ICT Advisor Sajeeb Wazed termed it as the beginning of the culture of impunity.
"Today is the 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," wrote Sajeeb from his verified Facebook account.
General Ziaur Rahman, founder of BNP, was the first military dictator of Bangladesh.
Following the darkest chapter in independent Bangladesh, the assassination of the father of the nation and his family on August 15, 1975, the indemnity ordinance was introduced on September 26 in the same year, paving the path 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 its conspiracy could be tried in lower court, Supreme court, or court martial. Thus, Ziaur Rahman turned the ordinance into an act, denying people's basic rights to get justice, he further said.
The killers were protected and rewarded through the indemnity ordinance. Even some of them were endowed with embassy jobs while some became members of the parliament in 1988, he wrote in the post accompanied by 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.
