Ghulam Azam, 89, a former head of opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, has been accused of creating and leading pro-Pakistan militias which carried out many murders and rapes during the nine-month war.
"He has been arrested after the International Crimes Tribunal rejected his (anticipatory) bail petition," state prosecutor Syed Haider Ali told AFP. "He was the mastermind of all crimes against humanity during 1971."
Azam is the sixth and the most high profile Islamic leader to have been arrested since the nation's secular government set up the tribunal in 2010 to try suspects.
Two senior members from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party are also facing war crime charges.
Both parties have dismissed the court as a government "show trial", while the New York-based group Human Rights Watch has said legal procedures used by the tribunal fall short of international standards.
Azam's lawyer Abdur Razzak slammed the arrest, which came after he was called to the tribunal.
"We don't know yet the charges against him, the order was not correct. He is also very old. Still, our bail petition was rejected," said Razzak.
Muslim-majority Bangladesh, which was called East Pakistan until 1971, has struggled to come to terms with its violent birth.
The current government says up to three million people were killed in the war, many murdered by locals collaborating with Pakistani forces.
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I beleive atrocities had been committed from both sides. But regarding Pak army things have been exaggerated.
@Scorpio: Please write your accounts so this hidden truth comes out. If Pak is blamed for 3 million killed, the Muktis also killed 3 Lakh.
@Amin: Good you have pointed this out here. The Muktis started the killing first. Hundreds and Thousands of Biharis were killed only for choosing the wrong province for migration. Sadly no one points out this grave atrocity against them which clearly was a systematic genocide. Pak may have killed 3 million in total but Muktis also killed 3 lakh Pakistanis.
@Mast Maula:
Watch Zaid Hamid's video .. he had put the picture of Shekh Haseena and under it quoted that she accepted that there were no crime committed by Pak Army.
That is how Zaiddu proves things. Makes fake videos and then refer to those videos as proofs...saying that everything is on you-tube.
@Gen Hamid Gul: Please provide youtube link I am really interested.
@Tariq Qureshi: Prove them.
@soldier,Not only Indian army saved Bihari Muslims who had conspired and colluded against Indian Army from reprisals , India refused Bangladesh and Mujibar Rehman's demands that India hand over top Pakistan army officers who were POWs for war crime trials to Bangladesh.
You wont understand Indian army nor will you understand why MK Gandhi went on fast unto death to stop communal riots against Muslims in retaliation of killings of Hindus in Pakistan.
@Scorpio:
For every Sharmila Bose there are a hundred people who say genocide occurred. How is Sharmila Bose more credible than these numerous sources except for the fact she is the odd one out and says what you want to hear.
Even Musharraf wrote a book .... Even Pakistanis dont belive it ... obviously nor does the world.... Can fool some people some time ....but u cant fool all the peple all the time ... Wake up Pakistan ... change ur history books and ur mentality tooo ...
@ Jack and Hamid Gul: You have no idea what you are talking about. i know. i was there.
@Babloo: does not make sense , this is a illogical description given by you, any one knows how india and indian forces has the hatred for pakistan and then they will move in to protect them, i dont think so, yes it is understandable they went into systematically cleanse them as they did in the cricket stadiums in bangladesh, what a blag.
@Scorpio: Lets agree that there were 56000 soldiers.
Total people (soldiers+civilian) surrendered were 93000. Lets say 7000 people died in the war. Total 100,000.
Can 100,000 people not rape 1,000,000 (1 million) women in a time span of 8 months?
Just because the war lasted 13 days that does not mean the atrocities took place in these 13 days only. Pakistan military started its crackdown "Operation Searchlight" from 25 March 1971.
So the maths says, 1 person, 10 women, 8 months. Now count your 4 women per day per soldier statistics.
@mohsin I was being sarcastic.
@Scorpio: Johar ji has mentioned killing and rape, naturally you will leap for the one that sounds more ridiculous. Possibly the claim that 3 million East Pakistanis were killed is wrong, but there was definitely a huge number of killings during Operation Searchlight, which was launched to root out the Bengali Nationalists. I know that you guys must be thrilled that a leftist like Sharmila Bose have come out with a controversial book (what else will sell?) that backs up the discredited Pak line on the civil war - largely based on a series of interviews of (you guessed it!) Pak ex-army personnel! She has of course been lambasted by media in India and Bangladesh for glaring inaccuracies, but then she is an American citizen and understands product marketing and sensational journalism better than most of her ilk in the sub-continent. Enjoy!
@ TS Johar: Lakhs.? There were only 56, 000 soldiers. They would each have had to rape on average 4 women per day per soldier! Please get real and stop parroting these inanities. Even in Bangladesh people concede that this is highly exaggerated. no Indian account of the war is to be believed.
Who is going to talk about the killings of innocent biharis in east Pakistan by bengali separatists, Bangladeshis say we demanded separation after elections, but the biharis started getting killed before the elections, this shows who is lying
let see will Bangladeshi government handle the truth because many innocent lives were lost during 1971 were form both pro Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationalist. lesson to be leaned what both side gain one with renaming pro Pakistani and other in form of Bangladesh.
Please read book by Sharmila Bose titled: Dead Reckoning. She is the grand niece of Subhas Chandra Bose, the great Indian Nationalist leader and a Bengali. She has shown the myths of genocide to be factually incorrect. many non- Bengalis were butchered by the Mukti Bahini and their bodies were shown to international media as that of bengalis killed by the Pak army. Not a single Bengali was killed in retaliation in West Pakistan. What happened in East Pakistan was a civil war and in a civil war both sides get hurt. i lived through it. i was there so I know. For forty years we have kept quiet but no more. Let's call a spade a spade.
Thanks Hamid sir to add your valuable comments, our Amry is our pride and we have to disclosed indian hands during that war.
@Tariq, Go and read the account in tribune itself a few days ago, by a Pakistani army officer about how the Indian forces immediately moved to protect pro-Pakistan Bihari Muslim minorities, as soon as they took control. Thats what Indian forces did, protected even those that had faught against it.
What about Yahya Khan, Tikka Khan who had taken oath to protect the people ?
What about Pakistani army officers who were responsible for killings and rapes of lacs of Bangladeshis during 1971 ?
Shameful Act
@Tariq Qureshi: I think you have a typo, and you meant Pakistani forces.
This is a land mark decision we also have many counterparts of ghulam nabi still alive in pakistan. they should also be made answerable. suh persons should be chased to their graves.
Why not arrest Mukti Bahini who bayonetted people to death in Dhaka Stadium. Over thousands of non- Bengalis settlers were systematically killed between March 3 and March 25, 1971 and thousands after Liberation were driven from their homes and ethnically cleansed. I know we should forgive and forget but unless our Bangladeshi brothers acknowledge this other genocide we cannot move forward. atrocities happened on both sides.
And there were many that were blinded, raped and killed by the Indian forces, for being pro-Pakistani!
Justice delayed is justice denied.