Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh elects new leader after executions

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami has elected a new chief seeking to turn the page after the execution of several of its top leaders.

Jamaat-e-Islami said in a statement late Monday it had sworn in former school teacher Maqbul Ahmed as its leader after a secret ballot of party members.

Ahmed takes over from Motiur Rahman Nizami, who was hanged in May after a controversial tribunal convicted him of murder during the 1971 war.

Four other top leaders, including the party’s secretary general, its two joint secretaries and its main financier, have been executed since 2013 following trials that rights groups have condemned as unfair.

They were tried by the same war crimes tribunal set up by the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which said Jamaat leaders had to be prosecuted to heal the wounds of the war.

“He is an experienced leader and a very good organiser,” said Abul Asad, the editor of the pro-Jamaat Bengali daily Sangram.

“He has said he wants to forget the pains and sorrows of the past and wants to look forward.”

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Jamaat, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, was barred from contesting the 2014 general election, effectively disenfranchising millions of its supporters.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party — allied to Jamaat — subsequently boycotted the polls, which became a one-horse race held against a backdrop of violent protests.

Many observers believe the lack of genuine democracy in the country has contributed to a recent upsurge in violence.