Background
Abul Kalam Azad was born on 5 March 1947 to an impoverished farmer, Abdus Salam Mia and his wife of Barakhardia village, under Saltha Police Station of Faridpur District.
Abul Kalam Azad was born on 5 March 1947 to an impoverished farmer, Abdus Salam Mia and his wife of Barakhardia village, under Saltha Police Station of Faridpur District.
He was the first of nine prominent Jamaat-e-Islami members accused of war crimes by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 of Bangladesh to be convicted for crimes against humanity, including murder and rape. On 21 January 2013 Azad was sentenced to hanging for his crimes. Earlier, for several years Abul Kalam Azad anchored an Islamic television show called Apnar Jiggasa (আপনার জিজ্ঞাসা), or Your Questions on a private television channel in Bangladesh.
After attending a qawmi madrasa, he was a student at Rajendra College in Faridpur.
Social actvisim
In the 1980s Azad became a regular speaker at a major mosque in Dhaka. He also led an Islamic charity.
In 1999, he founded the MACCA, a social charity. Reflecting on its activities he said "We strongly believe that religion and development should work together to help people.
We believe development work is only sustainable through religion.
Otherwise sustainable development is impossible." As part of his social activism, he involved MACCA in an awareness campaign against Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Televangelism
He was nationally influential, as he anchored a television show on a privately held station, in which he explained Islamic virtues. Before the formation of the Razakar paramilitary force, Azad is known to have actively aided the Pakistani army in committing criminal acts. He could speak Urdu well because he had studied in a madrasa.
In absentia trial
In 2010 the Bangladesh government established the International Crimes Tribunal under a 1973 act of Parliament.
lieutenant has indicted nine suspects who are prominent Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, and two who are Bangladesh National Party leaders. The government was responding to popular support to have the trials and settle longstanding accusations dating to the liberation war of 1971.
The trial was held in absentia because Azad went into hiding hours before Tribunal-2 issued an arrest warrant against him on 3 April 2012. He is believed to have fled to India or Pakistan.
The court appointed a defence attorney for him, Supreme Court lawyer Abdus Sukur Khan.
Azad was indicted on eight counts for murder, rape and genocide. Investigators said they had identified 14 people murdered by Bachchu: three were women he had raped and nine were other abducted civilians. Testimony was offered by 22 prosecution witnesses, including friends and families of the victims.
On January 2013, his trial was the first to be completed.
He was convicted of war crimes, on six of eight counts, including murder of unarmed civilians and rape committed during the War. On 21 January 2013 Azad was sentenced to the death penalty.
Abul Kalam Azad is currently believed to have fled to India or Pakistan. MACCA, the organisation founded by him, has disavowed him.
Azad assisted the Pakistani occupation force as the chief of the First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Badr force in Faridpur. The members of the force were young men mostly drawn from colleges.