Muhammad Kamaruzzaman executed on Saturday for war crimes committed during the 1971 war to break away from Pakistan

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Bangladesh executed Islamist opposition leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman on Saturday for war crimes committed during the 1971 war to break away from Pakistan, a move that risks an angry reaction from his supporters.

Kamaruzzaman, 63, of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at Dhaka central jail after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal against a death sentence imposed by a special tribunal for genocide and torture of civilians during the conflict.

His party last week called for a general strike and protests against the sentence. The border guard Bangladesh paramilitary force has been deployed across the country.

Kamaruzzaman was convicted of abduction, torture and mass murder as one of the leaders of a pro-Pakistan militia that killed thousands of people during Bangladesh’s bloody independence struggle.

Prosecutors say Kamaruzzaman, an assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, headed a militia group that collaborated with the Pakistani army in central Bangladesh in 1971 and was behind the killings of at least 120 unarmed farmers.

Bangladesh blames Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators for the deaths of 3 million people during the nine-month independence war.

Hundreds of secular supporters burst into cheers and made victory signs as news of the hanging was announced at Shabagh square in central Dhaka where they gathered to celebrate the death of a man they called a “war butcher”.

Kamaruzzaman is the second Islamist to be hanged for atrocities during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. Abdul Quader Molla, the fourth-highest ranked leader of the party, was hanged in December 2013.

Bangladesh went ahead with the latest hanging despite last-minute pleas from the United Nations, the European Union and human rights organisations to halt the execution. The UN said the trial did not meet “fair international” standards.