Who is ATM Azharul Islam? Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader charged with 1971 massacre walks out of jail

A day after the Bangladesh Supreme Court acquitted ATM Azharul Islam of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation war, the tainted Jamaat-e-Islami leader was released from prison on Wednesday. He was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in 2014.

After completing release process at the Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj, Islam was brought to the Bangladesh Medical University for checkup. He was released around 9.30 am.

Who is ATM Azharul Islam?

ATM Azharul Islam, now 73, was born in Lohanipara village in Badarganj, Rangpur district. He was the commander of the Al-Badr militia during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and supported Pakistan Army in quelling the revolution. He was convicted of orchestrating the Jharuarbeel massacre in April 1971. A total of 1,256 innocent civilians were brutally murdered and 13 women were raped in northern Bangladesh's Rangpur division during the incident.

However, appellate authority of the Supreme Court, which was reconstituted by the Muhammad Yunus government, has acquitted Islam on May 27, saying he can be released if there is no other case against him. The verdict was passed by a bench of seven judges led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed.

The top court claimed that in the previous verdict, it failed to give a dispassionate consideration to lack of evidences. His appeal was previously rejected in 2019.

Five other convicts in the case, including four Jamaat leaders and one from the Bangladesh National Party have already been hanged.

In another case, a Dhaka court on May 27 acquitted journalist Shafik Rehman for conspiring to kidnap and murder ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. He was previously given seven years imprisonment in 2023.

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