Kamaruzzaman must die, SC gives final verdict

Mohammad Kamaruzzaman will hang until he dies for heinous 'crimes against humanity' during the 1971 Liberation War, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The four-strong Appellate Division bench headed by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha gave the final verdict on the former Al-Badr commander around 9am on Monday.

The war crimes tribunal last year awarded death to Jamaat’s assistant secretary general on two charges, including the killing of 120 men and raping of women from village Shohaghpur at Sherpur’s Nalitabari on July 25, 1971.

The Supreme Court in its verdict found him unanimously guilty of the charge and sentenced him to death by majority.

But it reduced the death sentence awarded for the murder of Golam Mostafa, after torture and confinement, to life.

Life imprisonment awarded to him for the torture of Sherpur College lecturer Abdul Hannan and five more killings described in charge seven has been ‘maintained by majority’, the verdict said.

The appeal verdict has, however, acquitted him for the torture and killing of Badiuzzaman of Ramnagar.

International Crimes Tribunal-2 had found him guilty of five of the seven charges levelled against him by the prosecution.

Kamaruzzaman’s final verdict comes the day after the Al-Badr’s head in Chittagong Mir Quasem Ali was found guilty of murder, torture and abductions.

The supreme commander of the vigilante militia, the president of then Islami Chhatra Sangha and now Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, was handed maximum punishment last week for his role in execution of intellectuals, mass killing, rape and loot during the nine months of bloodshed 43 years ago.

Meanwhile, the Jamaat has called a 24-hour strike for Wednesday but curtailed Monday’s strike by 12 hours in view of ‘Ashura’.

Kamaruzzaman was acting President of Islami Chhatra Sangha in Mymensingh in 1971 and became the‘chief organiser’ of the vigilante militia in the region.

Described as a ‘killing squad’ formed to assist the Pakistan army, Al-Badr was involved in genocide, killing, rape and torture against those who fought or supported secession from Pakistan.

“We were hopeful that the ICT's death verdict will be upheld in this case, especially, because of the genocide as Shohaghpur,” said Tureen Afroz after the appeal verdict.

Kamaruzzaman's son Hasan Iqbal talking to reporters in a tearful voice said the defence would file a review after receiving a copy of the Supreme Court's verdict.