Profile of Kamaruzzaman

Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, an Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami, was born at Sajbarkhila village in Sherpur district on July 4, 1952, to Moulavi Insan Ali Sarker, a businessman.

Kamaruzzaman grilled at 'safe home'

He faces charges of serious crimes involving the War of Liberation in 1971 when he was 19. He was set to complete higher secondary education then.

He allegedly established Al-Badr, a paramilitary force that helped the Pakistani army in 1971, in the district by recruiting members from Ashek Mahmud College at Jamalpur on Apr 22, 1971.

The force was involved in genocide, killing, rape, looting, arson, and deportation of people in the greater Mymensingh district including Jamalpur, Netrokona, Kishoreganj, Sherpur and Tangail, said the prosecution.

A journalism graduate from Dhaka University Kamaruzzaman was a two-time President of Islami Chhatra Shibir, according to his official profile posted on the website of the Jamaat-e-Islami, which has introduced him as ‘a renowned politician, writer, orator, intellectual, journalist and Islamic thinker’.

After doing his Master's in Journalism in 1976, Kamaruzzaman joined as Executive Editor of monthly Dhaka Digest in January, 1980. Later he took the charge of weekly Sonar Bangla as Editor in January 1981. He also worked for Jamaat’s mouthpiece Sangram as Executive Editor.

Kamaruzzaman became the Organising Secretary of Bangladesh Islamic Students movement in 1972 when his original outfit, Shibir, was banned. He became Secretary General of Chhatra Shibir in 1977, right about the time when he also got married.

He took helm of the organisation as its President the next year. Kamaruzzaman joined Jamaat-e-Islami’s Dhaka City chapter in October 1979 and was sworn in as a full Jamaat member (Rukun) in 1979.

He was appointed Joint Secretary of Dhaka City Jamaat-e-Islami in 1981-82 and served as Publicity Secretary of the party in 1983-1991.

He became Assistant Secretary General in 1992.

He was a member of Jamaat’s political and liaison committees in the movement against former President HM Ershad and in the movement for caretaker government during 1993-95, according to his official profile.

He was also in charge of the party’s diplomatic relations.

Kamaruzzaman has five sons with wife Nurun Nahar.