The decision to hand a death sentence to the leader of Bangladesh’s main religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, has once again brought to the world’s attention the country’s controversial war crimes trials after a year-long hiatus.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, head of Jamaat-e-Islami, has been convicted by a specially set up court of a string of crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence against the-then West Pakistan.These include murder, rape, incitement and leading the armed group, Al Badr, against pro-liberation supporters during the war.
Security has been beefed up in Dhaka and across the country as the verdict has triggered fresh fears of the country’s largest religious party fomenting marches and violence in protest of Nizami’s death sentence.
Some two lakh women were reportedly raped, three million people were killed and millions more were forced to escape to India in the 1971 war of independence after Bangladesh split from Pakistan.
About a dozen Islamist leaders have been convicted of war crimes by the tribunal which is opposed by the Islamists as a tool by the Sheikh Hasin government to settle scores against the opposition.