Jamaat leader Azhar moves Supreme Court to overturn death sentence

Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam, sentenced to death for murders, rapes and genocide during the Liberation War in 1971, has moved the Supreme Court for acquittal.

Advocate-on-Record Zainul Abedin Tuhin submitted the appeal on behalf of the Jamaat leader to the related department of the apex court on Wednesday.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 had handed down the verdict on Dec 30 last year as the Jamaat-e-Islami leader was found guilty of five out of six war crimes charges.

Born on Feb 22, 1952, Azhar was a higher secondary student at Rangpur’s Carmichael College in 1971. He was the chief of the then Jamaat student front Islami Chhatra Sangha and led the Al-Badr in the district.

Azhar along with Jamaat and Chhatra Sangha activists and Pakistan Army attacked villages around Jharhuar Beel on Apr 17, 1971.

They had torched and looted houses and killed over 1,200 Hindus. Another 200 Hindus had been picked up from there and killed at an undisclosed location.

It is said to be the biggest genocide in the war.

The tribunal had said death penalty had been the only fitting punishment for the heinous crimes Azhar had committed.

Jamaat, accused of committing war crimes, has been alleging that the trials of its top leaders are a ‘farce’ and that its leaders are ‘denied justice’.