Within 14 hours of the convicted war criminal Ghulam Azam’s death his family members came up with another story of his last wish.
Ghulam Azam’s fourth son Abdullahil Aman Azmi yesterday evening said he would conduct his father’s namaz-e-janza according to his last wish.
The janaza will be held today after Zohr prayers at Baitul Mukarram national mosque. He will be buried following the lone janaza at Moghbazar family graveyard.
Aman said the decision had been made at a family meeting.
“Before his death father said his eldest son Abdullahil Mamun Azmi would conduct the janaza. If he is not available then Motiur Rahman Nizami or Delawar Hossain Sayedee will conduct it,” he said.
“As I told him 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 realese 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 to be buried beside the grave of his father at the family graveyard on Moghbazar Kazi Office Lane.
But the family members were yet to make any plan about his namaz-e-janaza.
But shortly after the conversation, Tajul told reporters in a briefing that Ghulam had expressed his last wish that the janaza be conducted by incumbent Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami; if not possible, then Delawar Hossain Sayedee.
However, when contacted yesterday evening he said: “We are not going to seek their parole as his [Ghulam Azam] family finds it unrealistic.”
Nizami and Sayedee are both in jail. Sayedee was sentenced to imprisonment until death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. On the other hand, Nizami’s war crimes case is pending at a war crimes tribunal for verdict.
Asked if there was any possibility to release two war criminals to conduct Ghulam Azam’s janaza, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said: “A convicted criminal can be released on parole if his nearest relative dies. They are not his relatives.”
Earlier on the day Ghulam’s body was taken to Dhaka Medical College morgue from BSMMU for autopsy. After autopsy his son Abdullahil Aman Azmi received the body at 7:40am. He took the body to their Moghbazar house.
Sources said many absconding leaders of Jamaat’s central and Dhaka city unit including acting ameer Mokbul Ahmed, city Nayeb-e-Ameer Hamidur Rahman Azad, Nurul Islam Bulbul, Abdullah Muhammad Tarek came to see the body.
Either they used cars of some media houses or lawyers for their secret visit to Ghulam Azam’s Moghbazar house.
