The teen who terrorised Bengalis

Mohammad Kamaruzzaman was born at Sajbarkhila village in Sherpur district on July 4, 1952, to Moulavi Insan Ali Sarker, a businessman.

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 3 Nov 2014, 11:58 AM
Updated : 3 Nov 2014, 12:35 PM

He was a 19-year-old and set to complete higher secondary education in 1971. He was the man behind forming the vigilante militia Al-Badr in Mymensingh, which helped Pakistan Army during the Liberation War.

The force was established mostly by recruiting members from the Ashek Mahmud College in Jamalpur.

Under his command, Al-Badr members were involved in genocide, killing, rape, looting, arson, and deportation of people in the then greater Mymensingh region including Jamalpur, Netrokona, Kishoreganj, Sherpur and Tangail districts.

In 1972, Kamaruzzaman cleared his higher secondary exams from Mymensingh's Nasirabad College. He then went on to study journalism at Dhaka University and completed his master's in 1975.

He served as the president of Jamaat-e-Islami's student affiliate Islami Chhatra Shibir between 1978 and 1979, according to his official profile on the party's website. It introduced him as “a renowned politician, writer, orator, intellectual, journalist and Islamic thinker”.

Kamaruzzaman joined Jamaat’s Dhaka City chapter in October 1979 and was sworn in as a full Jamaat member (Rukun) in 1979.

In 1980, he joined as the Executive Editor of monthly Dhaka Digest. Later he took charge of weekly 'Sonar Bangla' as the editor in 1981. He also worked for Jamaat’s mouthpiece daily 'Sangram' as the executive editor.

He was appointed Joint Secretary to Dhaka City unit Jamaat for the 1981-82 term and served as Publicity Secretary of the party from 1983 to 1991.

He became its Assistant Secretary General in 1992.

Kamaruzzaman was a member of Jamaat’s political and liaison committees in the movement against former military dictator 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.