Bangladesh to kill top Islamic Nizami for war crimes

Dhaka: Motiur Rahman Nizami, the chief of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, will pay with his life for the 1971 wartime atrocities, a special tribunal ruled here Wednesday.

Nizami, the Jamaat-e-Islami chief, led Pakistan Army's vigilante militia outfit Al-Badr during the country's 1971 Liberation War to abort Bangladesh's birth, it added.

The tribunal found the 71-year-old Jamaat leader guilty on eight of 16 charges levelled against him in a historic trial that began almost four decades after Bangladesh's war of independence.

Nizami's party called for a country-wide shutdown after he was handed down the death sentence, media reports said.

The announcement was made on the party's website shortly after the International Crimes Tribunal-1 in Dhaka found Nizami guilty of leading the execution of intellectuals, mass killings, rape, and loot during the nine months of bloodshed 43 years ago, the Daily Star reported.

Rejecting the court's verdict, the party claimed that the government filed ill-motivated baseless cases against top Jamaat leaders to make their party leaderless. It also announced to observe strikes from Thursday 6 a.m. to Friday 6 a.m. and Sunday 6 a.m. to Tuesday 6 a.m.

"Charges which have been brought against Nizami are totally false, fabricated and politically motivated," it said.

Meanwhile, following the verdict, Nizami asked his Jamaat-e-Islami supporters to remain calm, saying he would battle the death verdict awarded to him "legally".

Saying "all that they’ve accused me of are lies", he urged party workers not to react to the verdict at anyone’s incitement.

Nizami was held responsible for the killing of a schoolteacher Kasim Uddin, perceived as a supporter of country's freedom from Pakistani occupation, in June, 1971.

He guided the Pakistan Army personnel in arresting Uddin. They tortured and shot the teacher and two others dead in Nizami's presence.

On May 10, 1971 Nizami invited residents of Baushbarhi village to a school premises to announce that Pakistan Army was due to ensure peace. The troops arrived May 14 and killed 450 people of Baushbarhi and Demra villages.

They also raped 30 to 40 women and forced many others to leave the country with assistance from Nizami and his associates.

On Tuesday night, the Jammat leader was brought to Dhaka from Gazipur's Kahsimpur Central Jail and taken to the tribunal Wednesday morning.

He sat forlorn in the court’s lockup cell. With his trademark Jinnah cap, clad in a white kurta and brown vest over it, Nizami looked about blankly, bdnews24.com reported.

In court, Justice Rahim began with preliminary remarks before reading out a summary of the 204-page judgment shortly after 11 a.m.

Two other judges of the tribunal -- Jahangir Hossain and Mohammad Anwarul Haque -- were present in the heavily-guarded court room crowded with lawyers, journalists and observers, bdnews24.com reported.

Nizami served as the minister of agriculture from 2001 to 2003, then as the minister of industry from 2003 to 2006 in the four-party alliance government headed by Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Hordes of 1971 war veterans waiting outside the court, youths who converged for the verdict and and people across the country greeted the conviction, bdnews24.com reported.

The court's decision was denounced by Nizami's defence team as a breach of justice, declaring they would appeal against the verdict.

The government, meanwhile, beefed up security across Bangladesh, with State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal saying all necessary action would be taken to contain the situation.