Nizami second Jamaat leader convicted of killing intellectuals

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami is the second war criminal to be sentenced to death for the killing of intellectuals with the aim of hindering development in the emerging country after its independence.

The Supreme Court had also upheld the death sentence on Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mujahid, and he was executed on the same charge on Nov 22, 2015.

During the Liberation War, Nizami was the chief of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the affiliated student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami.

He was also the chief of the Al-Badr force that was formed by some members of Chhatra Sangha. Mujahid took over from him in September 1971.

The Al-Badr was formed to actively collaborate with the Pakistani occupation forces.

The International Crimes Tribunal found that Al-Badr committed crimes against humanity ‘at random’.

Nizami’s trial started at the ICT on May 28, 2012, when he was indicted on 16 charges of war crimes. The Tribunal found him guilty on eight charges, and acquitted him on the others.

He was given the death sentence on four of the eight charges, and life-imprisonment on the other four.

The Appellate Division on Wednesday acquitted Nizami on one of the four charges for which he had been given the death sentence, but upheld the sentence for the three others.

They include the charge of killing of around 450 people in the Baushbarhi and the Demra villages at Santhia in Pabna, the rape of 30 to 40 women, and the murder of 52 people in Dhulaurhi village.

He was acquitted of the charge of killing nine people and raping one in Karamja village while looting and committing arson there.

The death sentence has also been upheld for involvement in the killing of intellectuals in his capacity as the Al-Badr chief.

The tribunal observed, “...he cannot be relieved from the responsibility for the planned crimes committed by the members of Al-Badr Bahini with whom he had defacto superior-subordinate relationship.”

“...his organizations Islami Chhatra Sangha and Al-Badr Bahini mounted Gestapo like attacks to devoid Bangladesh professionals and intellectuals, amongst others, and launched mortal blow to free and independent Bangladesh, by selective elimination of respected professionals and intellectuals, found their homes, dragged out, often blind-folded, tortured, murdered and their dead bodies then dumped in mass-graves and other places,” it said.

The tribunal sentenced the Jamaat chief to life imprisonment on four other charges, and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence for two of these charges. They include the charge of killing a man named Sohrab Ali of Brishalikha village in front of his family.

The other life sentence is for the murder of several youths, including Shafi Imam Rumi who is the son of ‘Shaheed Janani’ (Mother of Martyrs) Jahanara Imam, at the MP Hostel in Dhaka.