DHAKA: A senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islaami (JI), Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, was sentenced to death on Wednesday for his role in the kidnapping and killing of people involving Bangladesh’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
A special tribunal in Bangladesh gave the verdict in a packed courtroom in Dhaka in presence of JI party’s Secretary-general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid.
Mujahid was found guilty by the tribunal of kidnapping and killing a journalist, a music director and a number of other people.
The JI senior leader faces seven charges including genocide, murder, conspiracy and complicity in atrocities during the war. He is accused of leading a notorious group that during the war kidnapped and killed many teachers, journalists and writers who supported the cause for independence.
Bangladesh says the Pakistani army killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women during the war.
