Activists of Pakistan’s Jamat-e-Islami party demonstrated in Karachi on Monday against the Bangladesh war crimes tribunal’s verdict. which sentenced the former chief of Bangladesh's faction of the party Ghulam Azam to 90 years’ imprisonment, Gulf Times reported.
Azam was the chief of the Islamist party’s East Pakistan faction, which later became the independent state of Bangladesh through a bloody liberation war.
On Monday, Pakistan Jamat-e-Islami’s chief Syed Munawar Hasan extended his support in favour of Ghulam Azam, the convicted war criminal, through a Twitter message.
The tweet said: “Its tragic to know that the fake tribunal has sentenced Prof Ghulam Azam for 90 years in prison without any legitimate proof and reason.”
While reading out the judgement on Azam’s case on Monday, Justice Anwarul Haque, a member of the International Crimes Tribunal-1, gave a brief profile of Azam.
According to the profile, Ghulam Azam went to Pakistan on November 22, 1971, and formed the “Purbo Pakistan Punoruddhar Committee” (East Pakistan Retrieval Committee) in Pakistan soon after the war ended. He continued campaigning until 1973 to build public opinion against Bangladesh and its recognition in the Islamic world.
Justice Haque said Azam went to London in 1973 and set up an office of East Pakistan Retrieval Committee there. He published a weekly, Shonar Bangla, in London, which was used as a propaganda tool against Bangladesh. Ghulam Azam later visited Saudi Arabia in March 1975. He met King Faisal and told him that Hindus had captured East Pakistan, burnt the Quran, had destroyed mosques and converted into them to temples, and killed Muslims.
The Bangladesh government revoked his citizenship on April 18, 1973.
Ghulam Azam returned to Bangladesh on August 11, 1978, with a Pakistani passport, two years after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. His citizenship was restored, and he rejoined his position as the ameer of the Jamaat-e-Islami. He served in the post until his deputy Motiur Rahman Nizami took over from him in 2000.
