‘Crimes against humanity’: Bangladesh political leader indicted over 1971 war

Ghulam Azam is denies charges of creating and leading pro-Pakistan militias.

DHAKA: A Bangladeshi special court on Sunday indicted a former opposition leader for alleged atrocities including genocide and murder during the nation’s 1971 war against Pakistan.

Ghulam Azam, 89, the former head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, is accused of creating and leading pro-Pakistan militias which carried out many killings and rapes during the nine-month war.

Wheelchair-bound Azam pleaded not guilty after the charges were read out to him for two hours by Judge Nizamul Huq, who set June 5 as the start of the trial.

“The International Crimes Tribunal charged him with crimes against humanity, genocide, murder, rape, abduction, arson and other crimes under international law,” state prosecutor Ziad al Malum told AFP.

Azam is the third and most high profile opposition figure to have been charged since the government set up the tribunal in 2010 to try suspects.

Both Jamaat and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have dismissed the court as a “show trial”, while Human Rights Watch has said procedures used by the tribunal fall short of international standards.

The government says up to three million people were killed in the war — a figure disputed by independent historians.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2012.