Bangladesh war crimes tribunal to deliver Azharul Islam verdict tomorrow

DHAKA: Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal is expected to deliver its verdict tomorrow on a senior leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami accused of war crimes, including genocide and rape, during the country's 1971 independence war against Pakistan.

Hearing in the case of ATM Azharul Islam, assistant secretary general of the Jamaat, was completed on September 18.

The 61-year-old Jamaat leader, indicted on November 12 last year, stands accused of murder, genocide, abduction, torture, and rape in Rangpur during the 1971 Liberation war.

The ICT-1, headed by Justice Enayetur Rahim, fixed the date today, bdnews24 online reported.

According to the prosecution, charges brought against Azhar include murder of 1,225 people in Rangpur, murder of four more, abduction of 17 people, torture on 13 people, and arson.

Azhar, a higher secondary student at Rangpur's Carmichael College in 1971, was the chief of the Islami Chhatra Shangha, the then student wing of Jamaat.

He had allegedly led the Al-Badr militia to assist the Pakistani army. Azhar was arrested from his Moghbazar residence on August 22, 2012 and has been in jail since then.

The tribunal was set up in 2010 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to investigate abuses during the independence war that claimed about three million lives and during which thousands of women were raped.

But critics say the government has abused the process as a political tool to target the two biggest opposition parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami.

More than 100 people have been killed this year in protests over the tribunal's verdicts.