Pakistan government formally recognized Razakar as an auxiliary force through a gazette notification on August 2

In support of the ruthless “Operation Searchlight” being carried out by the Pakistan military, the central leaders of the Peace Committee, including Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam, assured Governor and Marshall Law Administrator Lt General Tikka Khan of all-out cooperation in early April 1971. They later revitalized the committees and formed units at the grassroots level. 

One of those organizers was Maulana Abul Kalam Muhammad Yusuf, the deputy ameer of East Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971. He became the founding chairman of the Peace Committee in Bagerhat, Satkhira and Khulna districts and started campaigning in his area and played a key role in the formation of Peace Committee units at sub-division and union levels.

On April 28, AKM Yusuf was delivering a speech at a rally in Sanyasi Market in Khaoulia Union. The rally was possibly organized by Peace Committee. He said: “No Hindu can live in this country. They and the pro-liberation people are India's collaborators. We will protect the sovereignty of Pakistan at any cost. Youths will join Peace Committees.”

He also directed the Peace Committee activists to form a Razakar force (a group of volunteers having armed training). At the same meeting, he also made a list containing 30 names of youths and signed it. These youths were taken to Khulna just after the meeting.

Later on, AKM Yusuf conducted another meeting in Sharankhola and again listed 40-50 youths. A number of 96 pro-Pakistani youths were taken to Khulna Ansar camp on Khan Jahan Ali Road for training as Razakar members. These trained razakars established a camp at Baroikhali of Morelganj on May 5 and continued supporting the military to conduct murder, rape, arson and looting of the pro-liberation civilians and Freedom Fighters. 

Some of the remarkable mass killings of the war took place in this region, including Chuknagar in Khulna and Dakra in Bagerhat. According to the May 11 issue of the Jamaat mouthpiece, the daily Sangram, AKM Yusuf was made Peace Committee's convener of greater Khulna in 1971. 

The Pakistani government formally recognized Razakar as an auxiliary force through a gazette notification on August 2 and provided identity cards and monthly salaries to its members.

AKM Yusuf was arrested under the Collaborators Order 1972, but got released after the cancellation of the law on December 31, 1975. He was produced before the International Crimes Tribunal-1 on May 14, 2013. He died at a hospital on February 9, 2014. The case was at the summing-up stage at Tribunal-2 and thus scrapped due to death of the lone accused. 

Son of late Azim Uddin Howlader of village Rajoir under Sharonkhola Upazila in Bagerhat, AKM Yusuf was charged with the murder of eight people and the mass killing of 700 others, looting 300 houses and 400 shops and forcing 200 Hindus to convert to Islam in the Khulna region during the Liberation War. 

In the course of the trial, many relatives of victims, sufferers and eyewitnesses came before the Tribunal and described what trauma they experienced due to horrific and barbaric atrocities committed by the perpetrator Razakars on approval, encouragement and abetment of the accused AKM Yusuf. Many of the prosecution witnesses [victims] became emotion-choked by shading tears in open court and sought justice while narrating the events.

The tribunal in its observation said: “No one can justify that the Razakar force was created simply to preserve tranquility and to preserve Pakistan. The objective of creating this para militia auxiliary force was to wipe out the pro-liberation Bengali civilians, people belonging to Hindu community and in doing so it collaborated with the Pakistani occupation army in 1971.”