Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, executed for being found guilty of war crimes, was buried at his village home at Kumri Mudipara in Sherpur Sadar upazila after Fazar prayer, according to our correspondent.

Both his Namaz-e-Janaza and later burial were performed under tight security as police, along with members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), were on high alert to avoid any subversive activities.

Earlier the motorcade, including the ambulance that was carrying his body, reached Sherpur at about 3:00am Sunday, according to the district’s assistant superintendent of police Shajahan Mian.

He has been buried in a grave near Bajitkhila Orphanage Madrasa, founded by Kamaruzzaman himself, in the area as per his wishes.

Kamaruzzaman is the second Jamaat-e-Islami leader to be executed for war crimes after Quader Mullah who had been executed on 12 December 2013 by the International Crimes Tribunal.

Public reactions in the area could not be available immediately, but local freedom fighters, who had earlier refused Kamaruzzaman’s burial at Sherpur, but later allowed on the request of the administration, have decided to bring out victory procession instead.

Victory processions were brought out in different places of the country hailing the execution. There were processions brought out on Dhaka University campus and at the city’s Shahbagh intersection. Across the country, there were several marches calling for the completion of other war crimes cases. Demonstrators also offered sweetmeats to each other to welcome the execution.

Jamaat-e-Islami, however, termed the execution as a ‘planned killing’ and called for hartal for Monday in protest of the execution.

The war crime convict Jamaat-e-Islami leader was hanged on Saturday night at the Dhaka central jail for his crimes against humanity during the War of Independence in 1971.

He did not seek presidential clemency after the Supreme Court upheld his death penalty rejecting his review petition.

Kamaruzzaman was found guilty in five war crimes charges, out of seven, and was given death sentence in two of them by the International Crimes Tribunal-2.

On 9 May 2013, ICT-2 sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death in Shohagpur mass-killing incident and in the killing of freedom fighter Golam Mostafa.

According to charge-3, Kamaruzzaman advised members of Al-Badr and Razakar forces in association with Pakistani troops on 25 July 1971 to commit a large-scale massacre in Sohagpur village of Nalitabari upazila in Sherpur. The collaborators also raped many women.

Almost 160 male people were killed that day. After the mass killing of male people, the village came to be known as ‘Bidhoba Palli’, a place of widows.

Later, Kamaruzzaman appealed against the verdict demanding acquittal from the charges.

On 3 November 2014, a four-member bench headed by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha partially accepted his appeal. His punishment was commuted to life imprisonment for killing Golam Mostafa. But the Appellate Division upheld the death sentence for the massacre in Shohagpur.

The full copy of the verdict was published on 18 February this year. On 19 February the death warrant was sent to jail.

A review petition was filed with the Appellete Division on behalf of Kamaruzzaman on 5 April. After the court rejected the review petition on 6 April, the proceedings started to execute Kamaruzzaman.