Ghulam Azam (7 November 1922 – 23 October 2014) was a Bangladeshi politician and Islamic scholar who served as the first emir of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI) from 1992 to 2002.
Azam was accused of being involved in forming paramilitary groups, including Razakar Bahini and Al-Badr, to support the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War by the then government of Sheikh Hasina. These militias were involved in war crimes, including murder, rape, and torture during the Bangladesh genocide and opposed the Mukti Bahini, who fought for the independence of Bangladesh.
Azam was arrested on 11 January 2012 by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICT), a domestic tribunal. He was charged and found guilty of war crimes such as conspiring, planning, incitement to and complicity in committing the genocide and was sentenced to 90 years in prison on 15 July 2013. The tribunal stated that Azam deserved capital punishment for his activity during the war but was given a lenient punishment of imprisonment because of his old age and poor health. The trial was criticized by international observers such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International for being politically motivated. The deficiencies highlighted in the trial included judges improperly conducting "investigation on behalf of the prosecution", "collusion and bias among prosecutors and judges", failure "to protect defence witnesses" and "lack of evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt".
Family background and education
Sheikh Ghulam Azam was born on 7 November 1922 in his maternal home, Shah Saheb Bari of Lakshmibazar, Dacca, Bengal Presidency. He was the eldest son of Sheikh Ghulam Kabir and Sayeda Ashrafunnisa. His ancestral home is Maulvi Bari in Birgaon Village, Brahmanbaria. His paternal family is the Sheikh family of Birgaon, he descends from Sheikh Zaqi, who had migrated from eastern Iran, as a Muslim preacher and settled in the settlement of Birgaon beside the Meghna River. His family residence was known locally as Maulvi Bari during their stay in Bengal. Ghulam Azam's father, Ghulam Kabir, was a Mawlana and so was his father, Sheikh Abdus Subhan. His great-grandfather, Sheikh Shahabuddin Munshi, was a religious scholar in the region east of the Meghna river. His mother Sayeda Ashrafunnisa was the daughter of Shah Sayed Abdul Munim, whose family is a Sayed Peer family. His father, Shah Sayed Emdad Ali was a descendant of Shah Sayed Sufi Hosseini who arrived from Iran via Delhi in 1722 AD and settled in what is now known as Sayedabad of Kaliakor. Ghulam Azam's education began at the local madrasa in Birgaon and then completed his secondary school education in Dhaka. After that, he enrolled at University of Dhaka where he completed BA and MA degrees in political science.
While studying at the University of Dhaka, Azam became active in student politics and was elected as the General Secretary of the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) for two consecutive years between 1947 and 1949.
According to Jamaat-e-Islami sources, as the DUCSU General Secretary, Azam presented a memorandum to Liakat Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, demanding Bengali as the state language on 27 November 1948. The sources also claim that, he was arrested for his involvement in the Language Movement, but his name has been removed intentionally from the list of language activists by the Dhaka University administration. Noted political analyst Badruddin Umar argued that Azam's assertions regarding his role in the Language Movement were politically motivated. Umar insisted that Azam highlighted these credentials specifically to secure Bangladeshi nationality upon his return from Pakistan after the Liberation War. According to Umar, this strategy was adopted because Azam realized that political Islam—his primary platform—could no longer be easily exploited in the secular framework of the newly independent Bangladesh.
On 20 June 1970, Azam was quoted in The Azad saying that fight for Bengali language was a mistake.
In 1950, Azam left Dhaka to teach political science at Government Carmichael College in Rangpur. During this time, he was influenced by the writings of Abul Ala Maududi, and he joined Maududi's party, Jamaat-e-Islami in 1954, and was later elected as the Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami's East Pakistan branch.
In 1964, the government of Ayub Khan banned Jamaat-e-Islami and its leaders, including Azam, and imprisoned them for eight months without trial. He was the general secretary of the Pakistan Democratic Movement, formed in 1967, and later he was elected as a member of the Democratic Action Committee in 1969 to transform the anti-Ayub movement into a popular uprising. In 1969, he became the Emir of Jamaat in East Pakistan. He and other opposition leaders took part in the Round Table Conference held in Rawalpindi in 1969 to solve the prevailing political impasse in Pakistan. On 13 March 1969, Khan announced his acceptance of their two fundamental demands of parliamentary government and direct elections.
In the run-up to the 1970 Pakistani general election, Azam, together with leaders of many other parties in East Pakistan (including the Pakistan Democratic Party, National Awami Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, and the Pakistan National League), protested against the Awami League for reportedly breaking up public meetings, physical attacks on political opponents, and the looting and destruction of party offices. During the 1970 election campaign, while Azam was the head of Jamaat-e-Islami East Pakistan, one account states that Jamaat-e-Islami chief Abul A'la Maududi was unable to address a planned public rally in Dhaka after party activists came under attack, attributing this to public resistance. Other commentary has instead described such incidents as part of a broader pattern of the Awami League forcibly disrupting the campaign meetings of rival parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami.
During the Bangladesh Liberation War, Azam took a political stance in support of a unified Pakistan, and repeatedly denounced Awami League and Mukti Bahini secessionists, whose declared aim after 26 March 1971 became the establishment of an independent state of Bangladesh in place of East Pakistan. Excerpts from Azam's speeches after 25 March 1971 used to be published in the mouthpiece of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami named The Daily Sangram. On 20 June 1971, Azam reaffirmed his support for the Pakistani army by citing that 'the army has eradicated nearly all criminals of East Pakistan'.
East Pakistan Central Peace Committee
During the war of 1971, Azam played a central role in the formation of East Pakistan Central Peace Committee on 11 April 1971. Azam was one of the founding members of this organization.
The Peace Committee served as a front for the army, informing on civil administration as well as the general public. They were also in charge of confiscating and redistributing shops and lands from Hindu and Bengali civilians, mainly relatives and friends of Mukti Bahini fighters. The Shanti Committee has also been alleged to have recruited Razakars. The first recruits included 96 Jamaat party members, who started training in an Ansar camp at Shahjahan Ali Road, Khulna.
During Azam's leadership of Jamaat-e-Islami, Ashraf Hossain, a leader of Jamaat's student wing, Islami Chhatra Sangha, created Al-Badr in Jamalpur on 22 April 1971. In April 1971, Azam and Motiur Rahman Nizami led demonstrations denouncing the independence movement as an Indian conspiracy. Azam denied the association between the Peace Committee and Razakar Bahini, even though they were formed by the government and headed by Pakistani army general Tikka Khan.
During the war, Azam travelled to West Pakistan at the time to consult Pakistani leaders. He declared that his party (Jamaat) is trying its best to curb the activities of "miscreants". He took part in meetings with General Yahya Khan, the then military strongman of Pakistan and other military leaders to organize the campaign against Bangladeshi independence.