[Arab News] DHAKA: Bangladesh authorities on Saturday hanged a top Jamaat-e-Islami leader for overseeing a massacre during the nation's 1971 independence war against Pakistan, officials said."Mohammad Kamaruzzaman has been executed at 10 p.m. (local time)," law and Justice Minister Anisul Huq told AFP.
Four specially trained convicts took him to a makeshift gallows, set up near his prison cell, and hanged him using a rope, in line with Bangladeshi jail procedure. He was declared dead by a magistrate and a government doctor.
Kamaruzzaman was convicted of abduction, torture and mass murder as one of the leaders of a pro-Pakistan militia that killed thousands of people during Bangladesh's bloody independence struggle.
Hundreds of secular supporters burst into cheers and made victory signs as news of the hanging was announced at Shabagh square in central Dhaka where they gathered to celebrate the death of a man they called a "war butcher."
Kamaruzzaman is the second Jamaat to be hanged for atrocities during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. Abdul Quader Molla, the fourth-highest ranked leader of the party, was hanged in December 2013.