Prayers for Ghulam Azam held in Pakistan

Prayers have been held in Pakistan for the country's “lifelong friend" Ghulam Azam.

The war criminal, who throughout his life stood against Bangladesh, was buried in the country’s soil on Friday after he died a natural death.

Former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Azam, convicted of crimes against humanity in the 1971 Liberation War, died on Thursday at the age of 92. He was buried at his family graveyard in Maghbazar after a janaza.

The janaza was held at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque. Besides party leaders and activists, only a handful of leaders from the BNP and other political allies showed up.

At almost the same time, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan organised prayers in different places in that country. Pakistan Jamaat's Amir Siraj ul Haq led the prayers in Lahore.

During the prayers, he said, “We are proud of Professor Ghulam Azam's martyrdom. His death in a Dhaka jail in a torturous environment will ensure the downfall of the 'Firaun' Hasina government.”

In Karachi the janaza was led by former Amir of Pakistan Jamaat Syed Munawar Hussain.

Photos of these funerals were posted on Pakistan Jamaat's official Facebook page. It also posted several posters of Azam and executed war criminal Abdul Quader Molla, recognising their anti-Bangladesh roles during the Liberation War and also afterwards.

One poster says: “He struggled relentlessly for Pakistan even after Bangladesh became independent.

“For his love of Pakistan he suffered in jail till his last breath.”

- Ghulam Azam opposed the formation of Bangladesh at the OIC.

- He was exiled for seven years for supporting Pakistan.

- He supported the Pakistani army against the Mukti Bahini and the Indian army in '71.

- Hasina Wazed's government gave him 90 years in jail.

- He joined Jamaat in 1954.

- He became East Pakistan Jamaat's secretary general.

- In 1969 he became East Pakistan Jamaat's amir.

Another poster, carrying images of both Molla and Azam, called Molla a “martyr for Pakistan”.

- They countered the “Indian conspiracy” to separate the eastern part of the country (East Pakistan).

- Hasina government hanged Molla for “showing loyalty” to his nation, Pakistan, and “supporting” the Pakistani army in the 1971 war.

One post showed Pakistan's Rail Minister Sayed Rafique's quote, “Professor Ghulam Azam's fault was his love for Pakistan.”

The ICT had found Ghulam Azam, who left deep emotional scars in the collective national psyche by engineering war-time atrocities, guilty of, among other categories, conspiring and planning crimes against humanity in 1971.

His crimes deserved the highest penalty, it observed, but avoided death penalty considering his age.

The war criminal, who never apologised or regretted going against his own nation, only served one year and three months of his 90-year sentence in jail.

He spent that time under constant medical care in the nation's most modern hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. He was admitted in that hospital since his arrest in 2011.