Assistant secretary-general of
the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, has been handed the death
penalty by a Bangladesh war crimes tribunal for war crimes against humanity.
Kamaruzzaman, who has claimed his
trial is politically motivated, was convicted on five counts of torture, rape,
kidnapping and genocide of at least 120 unarmed Bangladeshi farmers in Sohagpur
village.
He was accused of being the
mastermind behind the creation of the al-Badr, a killer squad of the Pakistani army
that committed mass murder during the 1971 war for independence.
Chief defence counsel Abdur
Razzaq said, “He was just a lad during the war. It’s a ridiculous suggestion
that a 19-year-old could control the Pakistani army.”
According to an interview held by
Al Jazeera with a top analyst, David Bergman, he said, “The Jamaat-e-Islami
will not be happy with this verdict, but it is unclear at this point whether
there will be violence.”
He also added, “There has been
constant criticism from the defence lawyers that they are dealing with a politicized
court process and that they are being prosecuted because they are part of an alliance
that is against the government.”
He told the correspondent that
despite the loud cheers outside the court after the verdict was announced, the
defence, however, is extremely critical of the judgment and cannot believe so
much responsibility is being placed on a man who was just 19 at the time the
crime was committed.
The war tribunal, which was
established in 2010 by the government to put under trial Bangladesh natives
charged with collaborating with Pakistani forces in an attempt to prevent the
independence of East Pakistan, have convicted three other Islamists that play
key roles in the affairs of the Jamaat party.
Only in February, Delwar Hossain
Sayeedi, a Jamaat leader, was handed the penalty for his war crimes. There are
indications that Kamaruzzaman’s conviction will increase the tension between
police and Islamist protesters as there have been deadly clashes between the
two parties in Dhaka.
According to official statistics,
about three million people died in the nine-month Bangladesh secession war,
while independent researchers said that the number of deaths were about half a
million
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