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Bangladesh war crimes: verdict on Jamaat chief tomorrow

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Press Trust of India Dhaka
Last Updated : Jun 23 2014 | 3:59 PM IST
A Bangladesh tribunal will deliver its verdict tomorrow on Motiur Rahman Nizami, chief of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, accused of crimes against humanity during the country's liberation war against Pakistan in 1971.
"The International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT-1) will deliver the verdict tomorrow," a court official said.
Nizami, 69, is charged with 16 counts of war crimes including murder, rape, looting, abetment and the massacre of Bengali intellectuals during the liberation war.
The charges include the murder of 70 people and torching 72 houses in December, 1971 in Pabna's Bera Upazila, murdering 450 people in Demra and Baushia villages, killing many more in front of a Hindu temple in Santhiya Upazila.
About three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the liberation war, according to official estimates.
The tribunal had on November 13 last year concluded the hearing in the case. But the ICT-1 last month ordered fresh arguments to proceed in response to a defence petition filed for the sake of 'justice'.

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Nizami, then the head of the East-Pakistan unit of Jamaat's student affiliate -- Islami Chhatra Shangha -- is one of the last high-profile accused in the case.
He headed the 'Al Badr' militia until September, 1971 and later became a member of Jamaat. The Jamaat had supported Pakistan army's effort to crush the Bengali uprising in 1971.
Almost the entire leadership of Jamaat-e-Islami stands accused of war crimes.
Eight people have been so far handed down death sentences and two others were sentenced to life term since the trial of war crimes began in 2011 by two tribunals set up by the Awami League government.
The trial against Nizami began on May 28, 2012 two years after his arrest for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
A special tribunal has already sentenced Nizami and 13 others, including a top leader of India's separatist outfit ULFA, to death in the 2004 Chittagong arms cases.
The tribunal found him guilty of complicity in trying to smuggle in a huge quantity of weapons through the port city while he was Industry Minister in the BNP-led government of Khaleda Zia.

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First Published: Jun 23 2014 | 3:59 PM IST

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