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Bangladeshi Islamist to be executed | Bangladeshi Islamist to be executed |
(35 minutes later) | |
A leading Islamist politician in Bangladesh has been sentenced to death over war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence with Pakistan. | A leading Islamist politician in Bangladesh has been sentenced to death over war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence with Pakistan. |
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, a key figure in the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was accused of mass killing and torture and convicted of five of seven charges. | Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, a key figure in the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was accused of mass killing and torture and convicted of five of seven charges. |
Prosecutors say he led a militia accused of killing leaders and intellectuals supporting independence. | Prosecutors say he led a militia accused of killing leaders and intellectuals supporting independence. |
The party's spiritual leader was jailed for 90 years on Monday. | The party's spiritual leader was jailed for 90 years on Monday. |
Thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday to protest against Ghulam Azam's sentence handed down by the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka. | Thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday to protest against Ghulam Azam's sentence handed down by the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka. |
Hundreds killed | |
At least two people were killed when police clashed with demonstrators. | At least two people were killed when police clashed with demonstrators. |
The tribunal was set up in 2010 by the current Awami League-led government to try alleged local collaborators of the Pakistani army during Bangladesh's war of independence. | |
More than a hundred people have been killed since January in violent protests prompted by verdicts handed down by the tribunal. | |
The trials have come in for some criticism, with Jamaat-e-Islami saying they are politically motivated and Human Rights Watch describing them as "flawed". | |
Mr Mujahid was a student leader in 1971 and among those who supported a unified Pakistan. | |
Like many other Jamaat leaders he went into hiding soon after independence, but resurfaced after Gen Ziaur Rahman came to power in a military coup in 1977. | |
He later became social welfare minister in the BNP-led government from 2001-2006. | |
He is highly regarded for his oratory and organisational skills, but critics say he say he was an al-Badr leader responsible for the killings of a number of pro-independence Bangladeshi leaders and intellectuals. | |
Official Bangladeshi figures say as many as three million people died in the nine-month war of secession but independent researchers put the number at around 500,000. |