Bangladesh War Trials: The Need to Stop the Culture of Impunity and the Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism

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Abstract

"After Bangladesh's Supreme Court rejected final appeals against death sentences on November 22, two oppositional figures got hanged. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury were accused for atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence. Mr. Mujahid (age 67) was secretary general and official number two of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) party and served as Member of Parliament as well as social welfare minister in the BNP-led government from 2001-2006. He was found guilty in July 2013 on five charges including torture and the murders of intellectuals and minority Hindus. Mujahid was a leader of religious radicalized students in 1971 (Islami Chhatra Sangha, the student wing of JeI) which supported the unity of Pakistan and commanded Al Badr, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani army, during Bangladesh’s war of independence."