Islamic party leader gets death penalty for 1971 war crimes in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh – A special tribunal has sentenced a senior leader of an Islamic party to death for his role in the kidnapping and killing of people involving Bangladesh’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

The verdict came Wednesday in a packed courtroom in the capital, Dhaka, in presence of Jamaat-e-Islami party’s Secretary-general Ali Ahsan Mojaheed. The tribunal found him guilty of kidnapping and killing a journalist, a music director and a number of other people.

Mojaheed 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.

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