Leaders of the Sector Commanders' Forum (SCF) yesterday demanded that the government speed up the war crimes trial, as supporters of the war criminals are conspiring to foil the trial.

The rule of law and the spirit of liberation will not be established in the country until the killers of 1971 are punished, they said at the national convention of SFC at the Institute of Diploma Engineers in the capital yesterday.

Delegates attending the convention from across the country insisted that the government arrest BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam and other identified war criminals by December 16.

“We had to sacrifice our blood to achieve independence, and there was a spirit behind the sacrifice,” said SCF Chairman Air Vice Marshal (retd) AK Khandakerat the opening.

"But unfortunately the objectives of the liberation war have yet to be established though the present government is trying hard to do so,” noted Khandaker, also the planning minister.

He said Pakistani authorities had promised to try the 195 soldiers charged with war crimes, but they did not. “They are suffering now for this, as when a sense of impunity grows in a society, rule of law can never be established there,” added the deputy commander-in-chief of the liberation force.

Eminent educationist Prof Anisuzzaman said all should urge the government from a united platform to gear up the trial. It is our national failure that we could not try the war criminals in the last 40 years, he observed.

Renowned journalist ABM Musa said there are some ambiguities in the trial process. He said it is unclear whether it is the trial of war crimes, crime against human-ityormass killing.

He demanded that the Pakistani war criminals should also be tried.

Sector commanders Lt Col (retd) Abu Osman Chowdhury, Maj Gen (retd) KM Shafiullah, Maj Gen (retd) CR Dutta, among others, spoke at the convention attended by around 700 delegates.