Years in Exile
After the war, the Bangladesh government declared the newly independent country to be secular and religion based political parties were banned. On 18 April 1973 the government revoked the citizenship of Ghulam Azam and thirty-eight other alleged collaborators of Pakistan Army. Azam refused an offer of amnesty from the then Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to return to Bangladesh and renounce Jamaat politics, choosing to live in exile in Pakistan and England until 1978, when President Ziaur Rahman restored multi-party democratic system, Jamaat re-launched itself, seizing the democratic opportunity, and soon Ghulam Azam returned to Bangladesh on a temporary visa.
submitted allegations against Ghulam Azam to a mock court called "the People's Court" in 1992, alleging that after 1971 Azam tried to convince many political leaders of Middle East and Pakistan not to support the newborn nation.Ghulam Azam has himself stated that all such allegations are completely false, politically motivated, and has challenged his accusers to present proof for them.
Read more about this topic: Ghulam Azam
Famous quotes containing the words years and/or exile:
“Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)