Dhaka: Bangladesh late Tuesday executed a top Islamist leader for crimes committed during the war of independence from Pakistan in 1971, the law minister said, a punishment that risked provoking an angry reaction from his supporters.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, 73, a former legislator and minister, was hanged at 12.01am local time, law minister Anisul Haq told Reuters. He had refused to seek presidential clemency.
Nizami led Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami. Previous executions of party leaders have sparked violent protests.
He was convicted of genocide, rape and torture, charges the defence said were not proven beyond reasonable doubt.
About 3 million people were killed, the government says, and thousands of women were raped during the 1971 war in which some factions, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, opposed the break from what was then called West Pakistan. The party denies that its leaders committed any atrocities
Security was tightened across the country ahead of the execution. Supporters of Nizami protested outside Dhaka's Central prison, where the sentence was carried out.
Nizami was the fourth leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party to have been executed since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina set up a war crimes tribunal to look into abuses during the independence war.
A former government minister, Nizami was one of the most important figures to be found guilty.
He was convicted of setting up a militia which helped the Pakistani army identify and kill pro-independence activists.
Supporters and some rights groups said the executions were politically motivated.
Nizami will be buried in his village home in the northern part of Bangladesh.
His family met him briefly before his execution but left without speaking to the media, Bangladesh's Daily Star reported.
The hanging comes amid a spate of killings of liberal activists, secularists, foreigners and members of religious minorities that the government has blamed on Islamists.
(IANS inputs)
