In protest of the statement of Dr. Peter Custers Professor Md. Tasneem Alam, the Secretary to the publicity department of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, has issued the following statement on 21st June, 2010:

“Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami vehemently condemns the baseless and false accusation made by Dr. Peter Custers from Netherlands in a conference organized by Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (Committee to exterminate Killers and collaborators) at Osmani Memorial Auditorium on 20 July 2010. In his speech Dr. Peter Custers said that Jamaat  masterminded the killing of  hundreds of intellectuals just before the victory of the liberation war in 1971. He also said that as collaborator Jamaat guided the Pakistani troops in killing, burning, raping and plundering.
 
We, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, want to say that making such false and illegal statement by a foreign national about an established political party is absolutely uncalled for. No responsible foreign national should make such statement without any evidence, because such provocative and illegal statement is not only devoid of any diplomatic norm but also tantamount to interfering into our internal political affairs. We hold that ministry of foreign affairs of Bangladesh should protest to such illegal and unfair statement.
 
In response to such unfair and illegal statement, we clearly want to say that Jamaat-e-Islami was not involved in the killing of intellectuals or any criminal activity of the nature of plunder, rape, murder or arson during the liberation war. These allegations are totally baseless, false and fabricated. No credible evidence to meet such accusation has been produced by anyone in the last 39 years.  So, we strongly think that such allegation without proof from a foreign national is cheap and worthless. Mr. Peter seems to be influenced by the propaganda of some vested quarters like Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (Committee to exterminate Killers and collaborators). But for the sake of being objective he should have contacted us to know the true fact. Only then he could have been able to give his speech without any bias.
 
We suggest that Dr. Peter Custers withdraw his baseless and false statement without making any delay.”

Ali Ahmad
Head
Office of the Publicity Department
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami