DHAKA: A senior opposition leader in Bangladesh was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he was found guilty of torture, rape and genocide during the war for independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a lawmaker from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was given a death sentence by the country’s war crimes tribunal set up to probe abuses during the country’s bloody struggle for independence.
Chowdhury, 64, was charged with killing some 200 civilians and collaborating with Pakistan’s army to kill and torture unarmed people, as well as other crimes.
It was the seventh such verdict the tribunal gave since it was establishment at the start of this year. However, opposition parties have described the process as politically motivated ahead of elections due by January and more than 100 people have been killed in protests against the war crimes verdicts.
