India's Jamaat-e-Islami defends top Islamist in Bangladesh facing charges of war crimes in 1971

From: Daily Star (Bangladesh)

February 1, 2012

Indian Jamaat chief demands Ghulam Azam’s release
Star Online Report

Ameer of India’s Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JEH) has urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to release former chief of Jamaat’s Bangladesh chapter Ghulam Azam and other arrested members.

Expressing shock and utter disgust over Ghulam Azam’s arrest, Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari said in a press statement that it is evident to everyone that trials of Jamaat members, arrested over charges of committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, would be rigged and alienated from justice.

The trial would be done in a “revengeful manner”, he said in a statement published on the website of Indian weekly, ‘Radiance Viewsweekly’, which introduces itself as a “Muslim paper” in India.

Reminding Hasina of the rich Islamic legacy of Bangladesh, Umari appealed to her not to “spoil this legacy” by keeping Prof Azam and other Jamaat members behind the bars.