DHAKA: A special court in Bangladesh on Wednesday sentenced six men, including a former lawmaker, to death for supporting Pakistan during 1971.
The tribunal in Dhaka handed down the sentences against Abu-Saleh Aziz, the former member of parliament from the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, and five others over charges of mass killings, arson attacks and looting during the nine-month armed struggle.
The court also asked the authorities to arrest Aziz and four of his associates, who have been on the run since the trial began in June 2016.
One of the accused was on the dock when a three-member panel of judges pronounced the verdict.
Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, set up the tribunal in 2010 to prosecute those accused of atrocities committed in the 1971 in which some three million people died and about 200,000 women were raped, according to Bangladesh government estimates.
Most of those indicted are from Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party, which opposed independence.
