Bangladesh sentences 4 to death over war crimes

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - A Bangladeshi court on Tuesday sentenced four people to death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 war, which marked the country's secession from Pakistan.

“…They were convicted and condemned to the sentence of death and they will be hanged by the neck till they are dead,” said Justice Shahinur Islam, chairman of the three-member tribunal, state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reported.

The convicts, Akmal Ali Talukder, 79, Abdun Nur Talukder, 66, Anis Miah, 80, and Abdul Mosabbir Miah, 67 committed genocide, murder, abduction and torture from May 7-Nov. 24, 1971 in Panchgaon and Paschimbhag villages of Moulvipazar district, the International Crime Tribunal (ICT) said.

Only Talukder was present at the hearing.

The court instructed authorities to arrest the absconding convicts.

The ICT is a domestic war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh set up in 2009 in order to investigate and prosecute suspects for war crimes in 1971 allegedly by the Pakistani military and their local collaborators in Bangladesh.