Former Jamaat Amir Prof Golam Azam breathed his last at the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in the Bangladesh capital city Dhaka on Thursday. The hospital source disclosed that he died at 10:10pm.
The 92-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami leader was sentenced to 90 years in jail for his crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War. He was first awarded death sentence and the tribunal after a procedural review turned it into 90 years’ imprisonment.
Golam Azam was on life support in the hospital since 9:30pm, sources added. “He suffered a heart attack,” hospital sources told the newsmen.
Golam Azam is the second war crimes convict to die in the hospital’s prison cell after Joypurhat’s Abdul Alim.
A third individual, AKM Yusuf of Jamaat, died while still being tried by war crimes tribunal.
Another report says: The body Golam Azam has been handed over to his family.
Jailor Md Nesar Alam of the Dhaka Central Jail said the body was handed over at 7:20am on Friday morning after a post-mortem.
His family took his body to his Moghbazar residence.
Azam, the Jamaat ideological linchpin, had been kept at the BSMMU prison cell since his war crimes trial started in 2012.
His family said he would be buried at their family graveyard at Moghbazar.
Abdullahil Azmi, his son, said the burial would take place after return of his other siblings from abroad. Until then, the body will be kept in a morgue.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami condoled the death of Prof Golam Azam. – Our Monitor