Bangladesh executes Islamist party official for war crimes

Authorities in Bangladesh on Saturday executed a senior Islamist party official convicted of crimes against humanity during the country’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan, triggering a call for a nationwide general strike by the condemned man’s supporters. One prison official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told The Associated Press that Mohammad Kamaruzzaman was put to death by hanging Saturday night inside the central jail in the capital, Dhaka.

In his last comments, he regretted he did not see the victory of Islamic movement in Bangladesh. But he was confident it would be victorious here one day.

Kamaruzzaman’s eldest son

Prosecutors say Qamaruzzaman, an assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, headed a militia group that collaborated with the Pakistani army in central Bangladesh in 1971 and was behind the killings of at least 120 unarmed farmers. Bangladesh went ahead with the execution despite last-minute pleas by the United Nations, the European Union and human rights organisations to halt the hanging. The UN said the trial did not meet “fair international” standards.

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