Jamaat-e-Islami in an immediate reaction condemned the death sentence handed down against its chief Motiur Rahman Nizami in the sensational 10-truck arms smuggling case, saying the “political motivated verdict” was a bid to make the party leaderless.
The party's acting ameer Mokbul Ahmed said in a statement: “The government planned charges against him for its own political interest. The government has been planning to make the country leaderless as well.
“The government-prescribed verdict of what is known as the 10-truck arms haul case is unprecedented. We are left speechless, surprised and shocked by this judgement. We are countering this government conspiracy both politically and legally,” he said.
“From the beginning, we have been deprived of right judgement. Now our doubts have become true. Nizami did not get fair judgement,” he added.
“I call upon the countrymen to strongly resist the government’s conspiracy of killing political leaders,” he said.
In a separate statement, Jamaat's student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir President Mohammad Adbul Jabbar and Secretary General Atiqur Rahman condemned the verdict. They claimed that Nizami had not been implicated in the first charge sheet.
“His name was later included in the supplementary charge sheet which was politically motivated."
A Chittagong special court yesterday sentenced 14 people, including the Jamaat chief who was the industries minister of BNP-led four-party alliance government, to death in connection with the smuggling case related to the haul of 10-truck arms. He was also sentenced to life-term imprisonment in the arms case.