This is Nizami

Motiur Rahman Nizami, already sentenced to death in the sensational 10-truck arms case, has behind him a long history entwined with Bangladesh.

The 71-year old chief of Jamaat-e-Islami is mostly known for his active role against Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971. He served as minister in the coalition government with BNP.

Arrested on July 29, 2010 on charges of hurting religious sentiments, he was later shown arrested for committing crimes against humanity on Aug 2 the same year.

Nizami was born on Mar 31, 1943 in Monmothpur of Pabna’s Sathia Upazila. He got his Kamil degree in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) from Dhaka’s Madrasa-e-Alia in 1963. He later graduated with a degree from University of Dhaka in 1967.

He was inspired by the political preaching of Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi, who founded Jamaat-e-Islami Hind at Lahore in 1941. Nizami joined its student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha.

He swiftly rose through the ranks of the political outfit, operating in West and East Pakistan, and became Chhatra Sangha president in 1966.

Nizami retained the post until for the following five years and throughout Bangladesh’s struggle for independence.

The Jamaat-e-Islami had actively opposed the secession from Pakistan and collaborated with the invading forces of the Pakistani Army by forming militias.

Nizami was chief of Al-Badr, a militia made up of members of Peace Committee and Islami Chhatra Sangha, for which the incumbent Ameer-e-Jamaat also stands convicted of multiple counts of war crimes. The special court was formed in 2009 to prosecute and investigate individuals for committing war crimes in 1971.

Nizami’s Al-Badr had gained notoriety for executing prominent pro-liberation members of the Bengali intelligentsia ranging from doctors, journalists, teachers, writers, composers and more on Dec 14, just days before Bangladesh secured victory by defeating West Pakistan’s forces.

Jamaat with all its activities were outlawed after Bangladesh won freedom and Nizami left the country with other leaders of the group.

The nation’s founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated through a military coup in 1975. The then chief of staff Major General Ziaur Rahman, who later founded BNP, took over as President of Bangladesh and facilitated the return of Jamaat leaders by removing through an ordinance the Collaborators Act which convicted them of war crimes.

Top Jamaat leaders, such as Ghulam Azam and Nizami, were permitted to return to Bangladesh in 1978. Upon their return they revived the party.

Nizami had joined Jamaat-e-Islami after completing his studies and became chief of its Dhaka city unit.

He took his place in the party’s central executive committee in 1978 and remained there until 1982. He was Jamaat’s secretary general from 1988 until he became chief in 2000.

He was elected a Member of Parliament in the election of 1991 and leader of Jamaat’s parliamentary party. He was also elected to parliament from Pabna-1 in 2001 when the Jamaat-BNP coalition took power.

Motiur Rahman Nizami speaks to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia during the fifth national council of the BNP on Dec 8, 2009. Photo: bdnews24.com

Nizami served as the Minister for Agriculture until 2003 and thereafter as Minister for Industries until 2006.

It was during his term as industries minister when ten truckloads of weapons and ammunition were seized from state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd jetty in the port city while they were being offloaded from trawlers in the early hours of April 2, 2004.

Two cases were filed on April 3, 2004 with Karnaphuli Police under the Special Powers Act for Arms Smuggling and under the Arms Act.

During the 2007-08 caretaker government’s tenure, the court ordered further investigation in the case. Supplementary charge-sheets were filed in the cases on June 26, 2011, accusing 52 including Nizami, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and two former National Security Intelligence chiefs.

The prosecution alleged that the weapons and ammunition were smuggled in for ULFA with the backing of the then BNP-Jamaat government.

Bangladesh’s first war crimes tribunal finished hearing Nizami’s case in November 2013. Its verdict was delivered in October 2014 and on Wednesday the top court upheld the tribunal's death sentence.