bdnews24.com :The social media has been abuzz with criticisms over the sponsoring of a Dhaka University Alumni Association programme by the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited.The bank is said to have links to the Jamaat-e-Islami, some of whose leaders have been convicted as 1971 war criminals. The bank, in association with SAHCO International Ltd and National Bank Ltd, sponsored a reunion styled ‘Hironmoy Alumni Melbondhon’ on Saturday. DU Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon, former minister Dilip Barua, chiefs of Bangladesh Police and RAB, among other dignitaries, attended the event.On the Intellectual Martyrs Day last December, the university severed ties with all Pakistani academic institutions.Jamaat has been described as a ‘criminal organisation’ by a special war crimes tribunal for the involvement of its leaders in crimes against humanity to thwart the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. The Islami Bank has always been run by Jamaat leaders or people who subscribe to its ideology.Former chairman of the bank Abu Nasser Mohammad Abduz Zaher was allegedly a leader of the pro-Pakistan militia Al-Badr in Chittagong during the Liberation War.
