Bangladesh on Wednesday arrested a religious leader on charges of war crimes during the country’s 1971 liberation struggle against Pakistan, lawyers said.
Ghulam Azam, 89, a former head of opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, has been accused of creating and leading pro-Pakistan militias which carried out many murders and rapes during the nine-month war.
“He has been arrested after the International Crimes Tribunal rejected his (anticipatory) bail petition,” state prosecutor Syed Haider Ali told AFP. “He was the mastermind of all crimes against humanity during 1971.”
Azam is the sixth and the most high profile religious leader to have been arrested since the nation’s secular government set up the tribunal in 2010 to try suspects.
Two senior members from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party are also facing war crime charges.
Both parties have dismissed the court as a government “show trial”, while the New York-based group Human Rights Watch has said legal procedures used by the tribunal fall short of international standards.
Azam’s lawyer Abdur Razzak slammed the arrest, which came after he was called to the tribunal.
“We don’t know yet the charges against him, the order was not correct. He is also very old. Still, our bail petition was rejected,” said Razzak.
Must punish if he found guilty. JI always created problems for people of Pakistan. They always acts against son of soul. They had felt that Bangldeshis were not muslims. They were murdered, rapped. He must punish no matter how he is old.
Mukti Bahni is our hero and JI is is criminal.
Pakistani forget people who gives their life for united Pakistan and those who divide Pakistan like Bhutto, Mukti Bahni is our hero.
Not a religious leader, apparently he was a political leader of JI.
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Thanks to Adeel bro and other…For supporting us to Punish them who are War Criminal.
listed 195 pakistani army criminals should also trialed alongwith these culprits.
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