The first war crimes tribunal of Bangladesh has deferred the date to pass an order on framing charges against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali, an accused of committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 liberation War.
Published : 29 Aug 2013, 02:35 PM
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Thursday set Sept 5 as the new date for the order. The date has been deferred as the defence counsel is currently out of the country.
The hearing on framing charges ended on Aug 21. Sultan Mahmud Simon and Tapos Kanti Bol represented the state during the hearing.
Earlier, the counsels of the defendant on Aug 18 had opposed the framing of charges against their client.
The prosecution on May 16 had filed the charges against the Jamaat leader. The tribunal on May 26 had taken the charges into cognisance.
The 14 charges levelled against Mir Quasem include murder, abduction, torture and massacre.
Mir Quasem was arrested on June 17 last year from the Naya Diganta newspaper office in less than two hours of the tribunal issuing a warrant of arrest. Later he was sent to jail.
He is a director of the Islami Bank, a member of Ibn Sina Trust, and director of the non-government organisation, Rabita al-Alam al-Islami.
The Jamaat leader is also known as one of the top financiers of the party. He is the chairman of the Diganta Media Corporation, known as a pro-Jamaat media house.
Mir Quasem was allegedly the Chittagong unit commander of Al-Badr, a vigilante outfit created by the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971.
He was the third senior most leader in the outfit's command structure.
Such auxiliary forces like the Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakar supported the Pakistan Army to thwart the freedom struggle in 1971.
Crimes against humanity including murder, massacre, rape and loot were rampant in Chittagong and Mir Quasem is said to have played a leading role in them.
There are also allegations that he ordered the massacre and murders at the Razakar camps there.
Mir Quasem, who is from Manikganj's Harirampur, was better known as 'Mintu' to the people of Chittagong during the war. He was part of the Islami Chhatra Sangha during his college days.
He is also one of those who had prepared a list of the intellectuals who were murdered towards the end of the Liberation War. The intellectuals were killed on Dec 14, 1971, only two days before the victory.
After independence, Mir Quasem had fled to Saudi Arabia and returned after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of the members of his family were brutally killed on Aug 15, 1975.