Family, not party decides Azam's funeral rites

Ghulam Azam was Jamaat-e-Islami's ideological guru, the one iconic Bengali leader keen to hold together Pakistan at any cost, even when it meant death and deprivation to millions of his own people.

But in death, it seems he only has his family by his side.

Azam's son Abdullahil Aman Azmi, a former military officer, says his father's funeral prayers will take place at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque on Saturday after the Zuhr prayers.

Later he will be buried at his family graveyard at the capital's Moghbazar in what it is likely to be an 'essentially family event’.

Azam died on Thursday at the age of 92. He was serving a 90-year prison sentence awarded to him for his 'crimes against humanity' during the 1971 Liberation War.

The body was handed over to the family on Friday morning after autopsy. It was then taken to the family home in Moghbazar and kept in an air-conditioned room for visitors.

His party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, has blamed Azam's death on a 'false case that deprived him of better medical treatment' and described it as 'very painful'.

But from Thursday, only his son Azmi and lawyer Tajul Islam seemed busy for his last rites with Jamaat leaders nowhere in sight.

Lawyer Tajul said the family has been informed of Azam's last wish to be buried at the family graveyard and to get Jamaat leaders Delwar Hossain Sayedee or Motiur Rahman Nizami to conduct the Janaza (funeral prayers).

"If the family wants that, we can move the court for parole for Sayedee or Nizami to conduct the janaza," Tajul said.

Azam's 'last wish' has provoked ire in pro-liberation circles with Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee chief Shahriar Kabir describing it as 'politics on way to graveyard'.

Health minister and top Awami league leader Mohammed Nasim also questioned the justification of a parole for Nizami or Sayedee.

Azam's family sources had indicated that a final decision on the janaza was to be taken after the return of his five sons who stay abroad.

But on Friday evening, his second son Azmi announced that the janaza would take place on Saturday and that he would conduct the funeral prayers.

The former brigadier general told bdnews24.com: "This is essentially a family decision. The family wants me to conduct the last rites."

Early funeral is an Islamic practice, hence the delay in conducting Azam's last rites has led to considerable unease within his party and the family.

The website of the Jamaat's student affiliate Islami Chhatra Shibir upheld the need for early funeral and said family members should not wait for arrival of relatives if that may cause delay in the funeral.

But former Brig Gen Azmi said that was 'not something essential'. "Thousands of Hadiths are there, not possible to follow all of them. We delayed the funeral in larger interest."

Asked if the 'larger interest' was political or personal, Azmi said, "It was all a family decision."

That seems to go against the usual Jamaat style, where a member's business, work and lifestyle is strictly monitored and controlled by the party.