Jamaat-e-Islami member sentenced to death in Bangladesh for war crimes

Dhaka: A leader of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party was sentenced to death on Thursday by a special war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh for committing murders and rapes, including that of Hindu women, during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

Forkan Mallik, 65, was given death on two charges: rape and murder of a Hindu woman, and abduction and rape of a woman and murder of three including the father of the victim. Forkan was given prison until death for rape of two Hindu girls in Subidkhali Bazar and deportation of their family including the victims.

The tribunal acquitted him in killing of four, including two Awami League leaders, and forceful religious conversion and subsequent deportation of three Hindu brothers in Subidkhali Bazar, Dhaka Tribune reported.

The three-member tribunal concluded the proceedings of the case against Forkan on June 14 and tabled his judgment. Sabina Yasmin Munni, a member of the tribunal's prosecution team, said that the verdict reflected the wish of the nation and that she and her colleagues were satisfied with the court's order. Since Bangladesh launched the war crimes trial, the two special tribunals, set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's secular government in 2010, have handed down death penalties to over 15 people.

About three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the liberation war when Jamaat was opposed to Bangladesh's independence siding with the Pakistani junta. JI had earlier has rejected the verdicts, saying they are politically motivated.