DHAKA: Ghulam Azam, a leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami in Bangladesh, died on Thursday, just over a year after he was sentenced to 90 years in prison on charges of masterminding atrocities during the military operation in 1971. He was 91.

Ghulam Azam died of a heart attack at a hospital in Dhaka.

Azam’s son, Abdullah el Azmi, said earlier on Thursday that his condition had deteriorated, prompting doctors to put him on life support.

“He was suffering from old age complications. He also did not get adequate care in the hospital,” his lawyer, Tajul Islam, said.

Islam said Azam would be buried in a family graveyard in Dhaka on Friday.

In July last year, a special court set up by the Bangladesh government found Azam guilty of five charges of planning, conspiracy, incitement, complicity and murder in 1971.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014