Azhar to walk gallows

Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam has been sentenced to death after being found guilty of genocide during Bangladesh’s independence struggles in 1971. The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1, headed by Justice Enayetur Rahim, found him guilty of five out of six charges on Tuesday. Justice Rahim in his initial remark urged everyone to eschew violence irrespective of the verdict. The verdict was delivered in Azhar’s presence, who was in the dock. Earlier, the vehicle carrying him from the Dhaka Central Jail reached the tribunal at around 9am. He was kept in the court lock-up. Azhar was taken to the courtroom an hour later. The court proceedings started shortly after 11am as the ICT-1  Chairman Rahim began reading out the summary of the 158-page verdict. Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Anwarul Haque were also present in the tribunal. Azhar, a higher secondary student at Rangpur’s Carmichael College in 1971, was the chief of the Islami Chhatra Shangha, the then student front of the Jamaat. The Jamaat assistant secretary general has been charged with six counts of atrocities. Indicted on Nov 12 last year, he stands accused of murder, genocide, abduction, arson, loot, torture, and rape in Rangpur during the war. According to the prosecution, charges brought against Azhar include murder of 1,225 people in Rangpur, murder of four more, abduction of 17 people, torture on 13 people, and arson, according to a news agency.