Bangladesh emerged as a democratic, secular country from the ashes of
  Pakistan in December 1971. For a brutally cruel period of nine months before that,   the Pakistani Army had carried out an orgy of loot, rape and mass killings of the   Bengalis, especially the people of the minority communities. However, the   Pakistani Army had failed to comprehend the grit and resolve which their
  oppression had caused to germinate within the people. This well equipped army,   which loved to call itself the “invincible soldiers of Islam” suffered a most   ignominious defeat. But in the process, three million people were killed and about   280,000 women raped in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.   Immediately after the war, the trial of those people accused of committing War   Crimes was started. This included 195 Pakistani soldiers directly involved in murder   and rape as well as their local collaborators—who were mostly people with   tendencies towards religious fundamentalism. Unfortunately for the country, the   trial had to be halted in 1975 because of a combination of national and
  international compulsions.

  Today, these collaborators have regrouped in Bangladesh as several ragtag
  religious fundamentalist parties, whose only agenda is to oppose any move made
  by the people towards becoming a modern, democratic and religiously tolerant   nation. It is in this backdrop that the surviving members of the Sector
  Commanders (of the 1971 War) launched a countrywide movement in 2007   demanding that these people should be tried for War Crimes. Their underlying   argument was that the beginnings for a just and fair society cannot be made   without addressing the “original sin”, i.e. without those people accused of War   Crimes going through a process of trial. The Chief Advisor of the caretaker   government as well as the Chief of the Bangladesh Army has supported the
  trial. However, the fundamentalist forces are opposed to it and have started   distorting the facts. The trial is unlikely to happen without international
  pressure like the UN sponsored trials of War Criminals in Cambodia, Bosnia
  and Herzegovina. It must also be understood that adequate mechanism for
  the trial already exists in a Tribunal known as the International Crimes (Tribunal)   Act, 1973, which was passed by the Bangladesh Parliament in 1973.

  The surviving 6 Sector Commanders of the Liberation War under the Chairmanship   of the then Deputy Chief of Staff AVM A.K.Khundkar BU formed the organization   called the Sector Commanders Forum in 2007. The movement has drawn enormous   spontaneous support from the entire population and has acquired the dimensions   of a “peoples’ cause”. Already it has encompassed the Brigade Commanders, Sub   Sector Commanders, Commanders and ordinary freedom fighters both from the   military and civilian as members of this organization. The leadership of SCF has   made country wide tour meeting with the Professionals, Journalists, Teachers,   Women Organizations, Cultural groups, Freedom Fighters and Students Community   for open discussions on this movement and get their opinions. A signature   campaign was began on April 14 2008 to raise awareness for the demand so that   the then caretaker Government could begin the process of the trial of the 1971   war criminals(both the Pakistan Military perpetrators and their local collaborators).   The country wide tour, signature campaign, mass contact and various other public   awareness programs by the SCF leadership resulted in the weeding out of the   collaborators from the recent election and almost routing of the party that is   widely recognized as the sponsor of the collaborators and war criminals. The   movement for the war crime trial is yet to see the light of success as the tribunal   have not yet been set nor the process for the trial or war crime commission have   not been set up. The SCF will continue their pressure on the Government and its   agencies until the war criminals and the collaborators are tried.