Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- A special war crimes tribunal in a long awaited verdict Wednesday awarded death sentence to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Maulana Abdus Subhan.
Subhan, the incumbent chief of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and then vice-chairman of anti-liberation Peace Committee in Pabna, was given the capital punishment in three charges of crimes against humanity.
The International Crimes Tribunal- 2 pronounced the judgement on Wednesday for the offences that the founding chief of the party in Pabna and a Majlish-e-Sura member of the united Pakistan Jamaat committed during Bangladesh’s War of Independence 43 years ago.
Subhan was found guilty of six charges out of total nine, which include killing, genocide, planning, complicity and active participation in war crimes committed in Pabna, a northern district of Bangladesh, during 1971.
Law enforcers arrested Subhan on September 20 in 2012.
Security was tightened in and around the tribunal in Dhaka before the verdict.
Meanwhile, expressing satisfaction over the death sentence of the Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Law Minister Anisul Haq said the foundation of the rule of law has been strengthened through the verdict.
“Through the (execution of) verdict, we may repay a minimum debt to the martyrs who had sacrificed their lives during the 1971 liberation War,” he said while talking to the reporters at the Secretariat in Dhaka on the day.
The minister said the present government started the trial of war criminals and the trial is being conducted maintaining transparency and impartiality. “There is no scope to raise any question over the trial of war criminals.”
BBN/SSR/AD-18Feb15-11:29 pm (BST)