Jamaat leader sentenced to death in Bangladesh

A top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami party was sentenced to death on Wednesday by a special tribunal in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

Abdus Subhan, in his early 80s, was sentenced by the three-member International Crimes Tribunal-2 in Dhaka, saying six of the nine charges against him were proved beyond doubt.

“He (Subhan) will be hanged till death,” chairman of the tribunal Obaidul Haque said.

According to the chargesheet, Subhan guided Pakistani soldiers to kill over 300 villagers at his home district in north-western Pabna. The tribunal found that Subhan himself killed many of them.

He was convicted for murder, loot, abduction, confinement, arson and torture.

Since Bangladesh launched the war crimes trial, the two special tribunals have handed down death penalties to 13 people.