Dhaka : Bangladesh’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against the second highest ranking leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami for war crimes, including massacre of intelligentsia whom he termed “agents of India”, during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha’s four-member bench confirmed the death penalty for 67-year-old Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general and a former commander of Al-Badr, the militia raised by Pakistan to crush the Bangladesh’s struggle for independence. “(The death penalty is) maintained,” pronounced Chief Justice
Sinha nearly three weeks after the bench wrapped up the hearing on the appeal against the death penalty verdict handed down by the Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal.
The verdict evoked contrasting reactions, with many hailing it while Jamaat calling a strike for tomorrow, slamming the trial as “farcical”.
A statement by the party’s acting chief Maqbul Ahmad called for the countrywide shutdown from 6 AM Wednesday to 6 AM Thursday.
Mujahid had led the infamous Gestapo-like ‘Al-Badr’ militia, an elite auxiliary force of Pakistani troops, to crush the independence struggle.
Anisur Rahman
