The namaj-e-janaza of convicted war criminal Ghulam Azam has been held next to a road of Baitul Mukarram national mosque amid protest.
The leaders and activists of Bangladesh Shamillito Islami Jote, blogger online and Chhatra Mukti staged a protest in the capital's Paltan area and tried to bar Ghulam's body from being taken to the national mosque.
One of the key organisers of Gonojagoron Moncho hurled his shoe at the ambulance, which was carrying Ghulam Azam's coffin. Later, Shibir members physically assaulted the protester and shoved him from the spot.
Besides, the police have barricaded one side of the road as a measure to prevent untoward situations while the Jamaat members took position in another side.
The war criminal will be buried at his Moghbazar family graveyard following the janaza on Saturday afternoon.
Hundreds of leaders and activists of Jamaat and its front organisations had gathered in the mosque to join the last prayer of their leader who died on Thursday night.
Within 14 hours of the death, his family members came up with another story of his last wish.
Ghulam Azam’s fourth son Abdullahil Aman Azmi on Friday evening said he would conduct his father’s namaz-e-janaza according to his last wish. Aman said the decision had been made at a family meeting.
“Before his death Ghulam Azam said his eldest son Abdullahil Mamun Azmi would conduct the janaza. If he is not available then Motiur Rahman Nizami or Delawar Hossain Sayedee would conduct it,” he said.
“As I told him that Mamun was living abroad and might not manage to come in time, he named Nizami and Sayedee. I told him that they were in jail and might not be available. Then he asked me to conduct the janaza.
“Our family members also wanted me to conduct the janaza. So, we did not apply to the government to release Nizami and Sayedee on parole,” he said.
However, after Ghulam Azam’s death was formally announced on Thursday night, his lawyer Tajul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that Ghulam Azam had wished that the janaza be conducted by incumbent Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami; if not possible, then Delawar Hossain Sayedee.
However, when contacted he said: “We are not going to seek their parole as his [Ghulam Azam] family finds it unrealistic.”
Ghulam Azam, who was sentenced to 90 years imprisonment for committing crimes against humanity during the Independence War, died on Thursday at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
The 92-year-old Jamaat guru died at 10:10pm, Brig Gen (retd) Abdul Majid Bhuiyan, director of the BSMMU, told reporters at 11:55pm.