Bengali tribunal sends 2nd JI elder to the gallows

By
Asad Nizami
-
30
175

Bangladesh war crimes tribunal on Thursday sentenced a Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leader to death.

Delwar Hossain Sayedee, 73, vice-president of the JI, was found guilty on charges of mass killing, rape, arson, looting and forcing minority Hindus to convert to Islam during the 1971 wars, alleged, Bengali lawyers and tribunal officials.

JI has called for a day-long countrywide strike to protest the hanging of its third senior party member. However, per reports, the strike call has largely been ignored.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had set up the tribunal in 2010 to investigate abuses during the ‘independence war’ that claimed 3 million lives. The Bengali tribunal in the past has been repeatedly criticised by human rights groups for failing to adhere to international norms. Critics alleged that “the tribunal is being used by the prime minister as a political instrument against the two biggest opposition parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the JI.

Begum Khaleda Zia, Hasina’s arch rival and leader of the BNP, termed the tribunal as a “farce”.

Earlier, the tribunal on January 21, sentenced Abul Kalam Azad, a former Jamaat member to death in absentia after he was found guilty of torture, rape and genocide during Bangladesh’s 1971 war to break away from Pakistan. In its second verdict, on February 5, the tribunal sentenced another senior Jamaat member, Abdul Quader Mollah, 64, to life in prisonment after he was found guilty of charges including murder, rape, torture and arson

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30 COMMENTS

  1. Are they gonna try any army men, the real perpetrators of those crimes?? JI was just serving their masters….

    • And also those Bengali subverts who raped Pakistani women and burnt those army personnel alive who were serving in East Pakistan now Bangladesh.

      • Of course, them too!!! No favourites, no picking and choosing!!! Either try all or try none!!! Else it makes a mockery of justice!!!

        P.S. Don't understand why it took them this long to prosecute anyone (and that too just JI)…gives it appearance of something being done for political gain, and not in the interest of justice!!!

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