The war crimes tribunal convicted in absentia and sentenced to death two former leaders of the Al-Badr force, a subgroup of the Jamaat-e-Islami that was involved in the kidnapping, torture, and execution of over 200 Bangladeshi intellectuals during the country’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. One of the men, Chowdhury Mueen Uddin, a founder of the Muslim Council of Britain and now a UK citizen, serves as a trustee of Muslim Aid in London. The other man, Ashrafuzzaman Khan, now a US citizen, became chief of a New York branch of Islami Circle of North America. Neither of the two is likely to be punished, as the UK will not deport persons to a country where they have been sentenced to death, and the US has no extradition treaty with Bangladesh.
