Key man behind forming Al-Badr at Rangpur
Key man behind forming Al-Badr at Rangpur
Because of his profound belief in united Pakistan, he ended up becoming the chief of Rangpur district unit Al-Badr, notorious auxiliary force of the Pakistani occupation army, during the Liberation War in 1971. He actively took part in mass killing and acts of genocide and several other crimes against humanity.
The man -- ATM Azharul Islam -- went into hiding soon after the independence, but his devotion for Pakistan has never ceased as he never repented for his crimes.
Like many other collaborators, who fought tooth and nail to thwart the birth of Bangladesh, Azhar reappeared after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975 and became active in the politics of the Jamaat-e-Islami that opposed the country's independence.
Azhar has, meanwhile, not only become an influential leader of Jamaat but also managed party tickets for several times to contest the national elections. Like in 1971, people of Bangladesh, however, gave him the taste of defeat in the polls he contested.
Born on February 28, 1952 at Batason Lohani Para village in Rangpur, he became president of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, in Rangpur in 1971 when he was a higher secondary student of Carmichael College, according to the prosecution.
As a Jamaat supporter and student leader, he campaigned for party candidates Mokhlesur Rahman and Mir Afzal Hossain who contested from Badarganj of Rangpur in the national and provincial elections in 1970.
According to the prosecution, the war crimes convict organised Jamaat's activists and local Biharis against the pro-liberation force.
He provided the Pakistani occupation army with information of the freedom fighters, local Awami League leaders, intellectuals and Hindus. He also helped the army in detaining, torturing and killing civilian Bangalees. A newspaper report of Jamaat's mouthpiece Daily Sangram shows how much he opposed the birth of Bangladesh.
The report headlined “Rangpur-e dushkritikarider haate Mesbahuddiner shahadat [Mesbahuddin killed by miscreants in Rangpur]” was published on September 13, 1971. Mesbahuddin was a member of Chhatra Sangha.
According to the report, Chhatra Sangha's Rangpur district unit president Azam Ali and city unit president Azharul Islam in a statement deeply mourned the death of Mesbahuddin in the hands of “Indian agents”.
The anti-liberation forces used to brand freedom fighters as Indian agents.
Azam and Azharul also said “miscreants” would not be able to foil the victory of the “Islamic movement” by killing one or two Mujahids [fighters] like “martyr Mesbahuddin”, as per the report.
According to the prosecution, Azharul played an active role in forming Al-Badr in Rangpur and recruited Chhatra Sangha members to commit atrocities there.
Rangpur Town Hall was used as a “rape camp” during the war and served as an instrument of terror. Several witnesses testified that the war crimes convict had handed over locally captured women to the occupation army at the camp where they had been raped for days.
Azhar went into hiding after the independence but reappeared in the scene in the wake of the 1975 political changeover and obtained his master's degree from Dhaka University in 1980, according to the prosecution documents.
He joined Jamaat and held different party posts between 1982 and 1990. He served as ameer of Jamaat's Dhaka city unit from 1991 to 2002 and became assistant secretary general of the party in 2005.
He was made acting secretary general of Jamaat after a tribunal began trying Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed. Azhar served the part being in the post until his arrest on August 23, 2012.