Bangladesh hangs Jamaat-e-Islami chief Nizami for war crimes

Bangladesh authorities have hanged fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes committed during the country's 1971 Liberation War. Police said, 73-year old Nizami was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail midnight last night. He is the senior most Islamist to be executed in Bangladesh for war crimes during the liberation war against Pakistan. 

Nizami's final appeal against his death sentence was rejected by the apex court on May 5. A former



minister in previous BNP-led Khaleda Zia government, Nizami was in jail since 2010, when he was arrested for war crimes.

He was given capital punishment in October 2014 by the international crimes tribunal. He was particularly found guilty of systematic killings of over 450 people alone in his own village. With his execution, Nizami becomes the fifth top perpetrator to be hanged for the war crimes against humanity since the trial process began six years ago.