The prosecution side today withdrew the case filed against 36 people including Jamaat leaders Ghulam Azam, Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury to declare them war criminals.

In line with State Minister for Law Advocate Qamrul Islam's recent statement that the case might hamper the trial process of the war criminals, the plaintiffs of the case decided to withdraw the case in the greater interest of the country.

A Dhaka court on Monday summoned the 36 people to appear before it on July 20 to explain why they should not be declared war criminals for committing crimes against humanity during Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971.

The 32 other defendants include Jamaat's senior central leaders Abdus Subhan, AKM Yosuf, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Abdul Quader Molla, Delwar Hossain Saydee, Mir Kasem Ali, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Barrister Korban Ali, and Advocate Ansar Ali, and former BNP lawmaker Abdul Alim.

The majority of the rest of the 32 are also leaders of Jamaat, the anti-liberation force, which was constitutionally banned immediately after the country's liberation in 1971, but it was allowed to resume political activities after the bloody August 15, 1975 regime change.

On taking into cognisance a civil suit, filed on November 13 last year by three lawyers -- Mohammad Liton Miah, Mohammad Safayat Hossain Sajib, and Rajeeb Ahmad, Judge Iftekhar Ahmed of the 9th Assistant Judge's Court took the matter for trial and issued the summons on Monday.

Source: The Daily Star