The Supreme Court yesterday continued the hearing on the appeal filed by Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman challenging the death penalty given to him for committing crimes against humanity during the liberation war.
During the proceedings, Kamaruzzaman’s lawyer SM Shahjahan placed arguments before the Appellate Division of the SC in which he said his client was not involved in any mass killing at Sohagpur in Sherpur during the country’s Liberation War.
According to the charge, on July 25, 1971, Kamaruzzaman advised members of Al-Badr and Razakar forces to commit a large-scale massacre in association with Pakistani troops in Sohagpur village of Nalitabari upazila in Sherpur.
Collaborators murdered 164 unarmed civilians, 44 of whom have been named and raped many women. The murders were so brutal that later on Sohagpur became known as Bidhoba Palli (village of widows).
This is one of the two charges for which the International Crimes Tribunal-2 has sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death.
A four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Justice Sunrendra Kumar Sinha fixed today for resuming the further hearing on the appeal.
