DHAKA, Bangladesh — A senior prison official and TV stations say authorities in Bangladesh have executed a senior Islamist party official convicted of crimes against humanity during the country's 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told The Associated Press that Mohammad Qamaruzzaman was put to death by hanging at 10:01 p.m. Saturday inside the central jail in the capital, Dhaka.
Prosecutors say Qamaruzzaman, an assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, headed a militia group that collaborated with the Pakistani army in central Bangladesh in 1971 and was behind the killings of at least 120 unarmed farmers.
Bangladesh blames Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators for the deaths of 3 million people during the nine-month independence war.