Thousands attend Jamaat leader Ghulam Azam's funeral at Dhaka's Baitul Mokarram Mosque

Hundreds of leaders and activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami and its front organisations attended the funeral of former war crimes convict and Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam at the Baitul Mokarram Naitonal Mosque here this afternoon.

According to the Daily Star, leaders and activists of the Jamaat, Islami Chhatra Shibir and other associate bodies thronged Baitul Mokarram Mosque hours before the azan (call) of Zohr was made.

A white ambulance of carrying Azam's body left his house at Moghbazar around the noon and was soon joined by scores of Jamaat-Shibir men who were waiting on both the sides of the road.

After the funeral service, Azam's body was taken to Moghbazar for burial at his family graveyard. The former Jamaat chief, who received a 90-year prison term for masterminding war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War, died on Thursday night from old age complications.

On July 15 last year, a special war crimes tribunal spared him death sentence considering his age and awarded the 90-year jail term finding him guilty on five counts including conspiracy, planning, incitement, and complicity in crimes against humanity and genocide and murders during the war.

At hospital since his arrest on January 11, 2012, the 92-year-old fell critically ill Thursday and died at 10.10 p.m. the same day at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital.

Security was tight throughout the funeral service.