Bangla MP to hang for genocide against Hindus
DHAKA: A Bangladesh court on Tuesday sentenced to death a top opposition MP for genocide, the first lawmaker to be convicted of war crimes during the 1971 war of independence.
Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was found guilty by the International Crimes Tribunal of nine charges including murder and religious persecution. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the tribunal convicted Chowdhury on nine of 23 charges, including four countsof genocide.chowdhurywas found guilty of aiding and ordering thekillingof atleast200people,mostly minority Hindus, during the war in Chittagong. After the sentence was read out, a defiant Chowdhury accused the government of influencing the judge’s decision. Since January, the much-criticised International Crimes Tribunal has convicted seven people, including six Islamists, of crimes related to the nine-month war, in which pro-independence fighters battled Pakistani forces who were helped by local collaborators.
Meanwhile,clericsinbangladesh held small protests Tuesday against Muhammad Yunus over com ments he made in 2012 supporting gay rights, in the latest campaign against the Nobel laureate and micro-loan pioneer. Islamic groups with links to the government in the deeply conservative Muslim country have organised the cam paign against Yunus, saying he should be prosecuted for support ing homosexuals.