A special tribunal in Bangladesh Sunday sentenced to death a senior leader of the country’s largest Islamist party, the second capital sentence in a week for mass killings during the nation’s war against Pakistan in 1971.
Judge Obaidul Hasan read the verdict against Mir Quasem Ali in a courtroom in Dhaka. The 62-year-old Ali is a member of party Jamat-e-Islami (JI)’s top policy-making body and is considered to be one of the top financiers of the party.
Last week, the court sentenced to death JI leader Motiur Rahman Nizami for the 1971 war crimes. Another senior leader has already been hanged. JI enforced a nationwide protest strike Sunday though no violence was reported.
The court’s previous verdicts have triggered street violence. Bangladesh accuses Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators for the deaths of three million people during the nine-month 1971 war.
The tribunal found Ali guilty on eight charges, two of which carried a death sentence, including the abduction of a young man and his killing in a torture cell. He was also sentenced to 72 years in prison on the other charges. His lawyers said they would appeal.
Since 2010, the court has passed 12 verdicts against mostly senior leaders of JI, which had openly campaigned against independence but denied committing atrocities.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called the trials a long-overdue effort to obtain justice for war crimes, four decades after Bangladesh split from Pakistan. However, critics maintain that she is using the tribunals to weaken the country’s opposition parties.
She is a staunch pro Indian from the start, now she is fulfilling their agenda. She doesn't recollect what happened to her father who was a popular leader of his time!
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