Dhaka, Dec. 30 (PTI): The fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, which had opposed the 1971 war and sided with Pakistani troops, has suffered a drubbing in the Bangladesh elections.

The party, an ally of Khaleda Zia, won only two seats in the 300-member Bangladesh parliament compared to 20 in the last elections, held in 2001.

Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and secretary-general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid conceded defeat.

“The anti-liberation forces have been defeated once again, this time through people’s verdict,” the Daily Star newspaper said. “While it is a sweet revenge for Bangladeshis against the war criminals, the verdict will make stronger the demand for their trial.”

Most political analysts attributed Jamaat’s debacle to a campaign for the trial of the 1971 war criminals, launched by the Sector Commanders’ Forum, an organisation of war veterans backed by India.

The campaign, which intensified as the country celebrated the 37th anniversary of its liberation on December 16, particularly influenced young voters. First-time voters made up 33 per cent of the electorate.

Nizami and Mojahid led the Al-Badr forces that are widely believed to have abducted and killed frontline intellectuals in an effort to cripple the emerging nation just two days before their defeat on December 16, 1971.

Demands for the trial of war criminals resurfaced in the past year after Mojahid denied his party’s role in 1971 and said “anti-Liberation forces never existed”. Another Jamaat leader sparked outrage when he called the Liberation War a “civil war”.

The Sector Commanders’ Forum last month published a primary list of the 1971 war criminals and ran a campaign across the country asking people to boycott the “anti-Liberation” forces.

The message was spread over cellphones and the Internet.

“Pro-Liberation and anti-Liberation forces can’t co-exist,” chief co-ordinator of the forum and former army chief Lt General (retd) Harunur Rashid said.

The chief adviser of the outgoing interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, had earlier said in response to demands for the trial of war criminals and their disqualification from elections that his administration would welcome legal moves by the aggrieved.

More than three million people lost their lives and thousands of women were tortured during the war.

The Jamaat and other religion-based parties were constitutionally banned in Bangladesh till 1976, but were allowed to resume activities after the August 15, 1975, when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed along with most of his family members.