An MP with the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has been charged with war crimes. Allegations against Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury include genocide, murder looting and facilitating rape during the country's 1971 liberation struggle, an official said Tuesday.

"Investigators have found compelling evidence of war crimes against Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury. We filed charges against him late Monday and the International Crimes Tribunal will now decide whether to accept the charges," prosecutor Syed Haider Ali said.

Chowdhury - the highest ranking BNP lawmaker to be investigated by the tribunal - is directly implicated in the murder of a high-profile Hindu businessman. Ali said "We have found evidence that he turned his father's Chittagong residence as a torture cell during the war," He said, adding Chowdhury's father was a strong supporter of Pakistan and opposed then-East Pakistan's secession.

Opposition to Tribunal
The Tribunal, created last year to try people suspected of atrocities during the independence campaign from Pakistan, is a domestic set-up and is not endorsed by the United Nations. Opposition parties have dismissed it as a sham. 

Last month, the Tribunal charged a leader of an Islamic party, Delawar Hossain Sayedee, with atrocities including genocide, rape and religious persecution. Sayedee is currently held in detention along with four other suspects from his Jamaat-e-Islami party and two more, including Chowdhury, from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Both parties - which ruled in coalition from 2001 to 2006 - have dismissed the tribunal process as a government "show trial", while the New York-based group Human Rights Watch has said legal procedures fall short of international standards. Bangladesh's government claims some three million people were killed during the nine-month long struggle. Independent researchers say the figure is far lower.

(Source:AFA)