B'desh war crimes tribunal to deliver verdict on BNP leader

A special Bangladeshi tribunal is set to deliver a crucial verdict on veteran BNP leader Abdul Alim's alleged involvement in 1971 war crimes today, prompting authorities to beef up security across the nation.
"This is a 191-page judgement," an official of the International Crimes Tribunal told reporters as the 83-year-old leader appeared on the dock.
The judgement comes as the prosecution lawyers last month wrapped up their arguments demanding the capital punishment for Alim, while the tribunal indicted him two years ago on 17 specific charges of crimes against humanity.
According to the charges, Alim killed or ordered killings of some 600 people. In one such incidents he raided a village inhibited by minority Hindus along with his men, dragged some 370 residents out of their homes, lined them up and shot them dead at northwestern Joypurhat, his hometown.

Alim was also accused of looting, arson, deportation and detention of unarmed civilians being the then chairman of so-called Peace Committee and leader of Razakar Bahini, an auxiliary force which was manned by Bengali-speaking collaborators of the Pakistani troops in 1971.
A former minister in slain president and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) founder Zia-ur Rahman's cabinet in late 1970s, Alim was arrested from his home in northwestern Joypurhat after the tribunal issued a warrant against him.

He obtained a bail on heath grounds but the tribunal ordered him to be resent to the jail on September 22 after wrapping up the hearing.

Alim was reportedly arrested by freedom fighters after Bangladesh's December 16, 1971 victory and he was kept for days in a steel cage in a public place in Joypurhat.
But he eventually managed to evade the peoples' wraths and later rehabilitated himself in politics to become a lawmaker and minister, joining the BNP, now being headed by former prime minister Khaleda Zia.
Last week, prominent BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, 65, was sentenced to death by the tribunal for genocide during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan, becoming the first MP and seventh person to be convicted of crimes against humanity.