Bangladesh: Jamaat 2 executed for crimes of 1971

Bangladesh has executed two prominent opposition politicians for war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.

Saluddin, a standing committee member of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Mujahid, the secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, were convicted of genocide, arson, conspiracy and forced converting of Hindus to Islam during the nine-month war of 1971.

About two hours after executions, ambulances carrying the bodies left the jail for Mojaheed and Chowdhury’s ancestral homes.

Bicchu Jalaj, a veteran of the 1971 war, is among many Bangladeshi independence supporters who are hailing the executions.

Jamaat, whose two other senior leaders already have been executed on war crimes charges, issued a statement calling for a nationwide general strike today.

“Pakistan is deeply disturbed at this development”, said the Foreign Office spokesperson in a statement regarding the execution on Sunday.

Two unknown attackers opened shots at the vehicle and wounded reporter Rajib Sen, according to Naimul Hasan, additional police superintendent of Chittagong. Bangladesh has been roiled by violence for much of the last three years since the tribunal began delivering verdicts on opposition figures linked to war crimes.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said they were hanged after President Abdul Hamid rejected appeals for clemency by the two men.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina opened an inquiry into crimes committed during the war in 2010, paving the way for prosecutions by a war crimes tribunal that Islamists have denounced as part of a politically motivated campaign aimed at weakening Jamaat-e-Islami’s leadership.

Freelance journalist Julfikar Ali Manik echoed Kabir and said that Hasina’s stand was commendable as the country was facing challenges similar to the ones it had faced during the 1971 war, when forces opposing the freedom of Bangladesh had driven a wedge among the people in the name of religion.

News of the executions comes as Bangladesh has been reeling under a string of terror attacks, beginning with the killing of four secular bloggers and a publisher this year by a Islamic fundamentalist group inspired by the writings of al-Qaeda.

Pakistan also said the trials were “flawed”.

Pakistan on Sunday expressed concern over executions of opposition leaders in Bangladesh.

Both BNP and Jamaat have dismissed the court as a government ” show trial” and said it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations.

Such extremist violence was once rare in Bangladesh, which is mostly Muslim but with a strong secular tradition.