War crimes accused AKM Yusuf died at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital Sunday morning. He was 87.As the Jamaat leader fell sick at Kashimpur Jail-1 in Gazipur, he was rushed to BSMMU Hospital, where he breathed his last at around 11:30 am.On August 1 last year, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 indicted Yusuf, senior nayeb-e-ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.The tribunal considered 13 out of 15 charges of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War as proposed by the prosecution on May 8 last year which fall Under Sections 3(2), 4 (1) and 4 (2) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.Founder of the notorious Razakar outfit during the 1971 Liberation War, Yusuf, also the second man in the hierarchy of Jamaat leadership, faced charges, including genocide, killing, loot, arson, deportation of people and religious conversion.According to the prosecution, Jamaat leader Yusuf, a member of the infamous Malek cabinet in occupied Bangladesh, a rubberstamp government backed by the Pakistan junta, had formed for the first time in Khulna in 1971 the vigilante group Razakar with the members of Jamaat-e-Islami that acted as an auxiliary force of the Pakistan occupation army to actively thwart the Bangladesh liberation forces. Yusuf had also acted as the chairman of the Peace Committee (Collaborator) in Bagerhat, Satkhira and Khulna districts during the Liberation War. On February 5, the tribunal set February 12 for prosecution summing-up arguments in the case.
