Azharul Islam, senior leader of the largest Islamist fundamentalist party in the country Jamaat-e-Islami, was found guilty of war crimes, including genocide, murder and torture, Outlook India reported Tuesday. In particular, he was found guilty of genocide of more than 1,200 people in the Rangpur district in northern Bangladesh in 1971.
"He shall be hanged by neck until he is dead," Outlook India said, quoting the chairman of the panel of judges.
Bangladesh has already tried 15 cases since the trials began in 2010, and almost all verdicts have been returned guilty with a sentence of death. Most of the convicts are Jamaat-e-Islami followers who collaborated with Pakistani troops in 1971.
The Bangladesh Liberation War was a violent military conflict between West and East Pakistan resulting in East Pakistan's separation and the establishment of the independent republic of Bangladesh. The war began when the Pakistani Army launched a military operation against Bengali-speaking civilians in East Pakistan who were seeking independence. The war is notorious for large-scale atrocities suffered in the territories of what is now Bangladesh.
