BNP silent on war criminal Nizami’s death sentence

Jamaat-e-Islami’s key ally, the BNP, has not given its reaction to Motiur Rahman Nizami’s death sentence for war crimes.

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A special tribunal on Wednesday pronounced the verdict against the Jamaat chief, who had led the notorious Al-Badr militia during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.

The BNP’s acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir attended a discussion in Dhaka in memory of Language Movement veteran Abdul Matin.

He was silent when reporters asked him about his party’s reaction to the Nizami verdict.

BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s advisor Shamsuzzaman Dudu and Joint Secretary General Barkatullah Bulu, too, declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the party had rescheduled its Thursday’s Natore rally to Saturday ahead of the verdict.

Most of those convicted by the war crimes tribunals are current and former leaders of Jamaat. Two of the BNP’s leaders – Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Abdul Alim – too have been convicted of war crimes.

The BNP had not commented on any of those convictions either.

It also avoided giving its reaction to the death of top war criminal and former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam.

BNP chief Khaleda has said her party’s relation with the Jamaat, a party under the scanner for its wartime role, is merely an electoral understanding.