Bangladesh's biggest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami today called a nationwide general strike tomorrow to protest the execution of its chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, the senior-most Islamist to be executed for war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan. \


In a statement, Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan, described 73-year-old Nizami's execution as a "planned murder" and called a nationwide 24-hour strike from 5 am tomorrow to 5 am on Friday.


"He (Nizami) was deprived of justice. He is a victim of political vengeance," acting Jamaat chief Mokbul Ahmed said in the statement urging people to observe the strike.


Jamaat's previous such strike calls protesting the trial of their senior leaders for war crimes largely went unheeded. The party last called a nationwide hartal on May 6, a day after the Supreme Court rejected Nizami's review petition reconfirming his death penalty.


Nizami was hanged at midnight, a day after the Supreme Court verdict reached authorities at the Dhaka Central Jail. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Nizami had preferred not to seek presidential clemency as his last effort to avoid the noose "because he understood the crimes he had committed were unpardonable".


Nizami was buried in line with Islamic rituals at his village home at northwestern Pabna's Sathia sub-district early this morning in presence of family members and neighbours while armed police kept a sharp vigil.


An ambulance escorted by police cars carried the body straight to Sathia for burial though family members of the 1971 war victims and freedom fighters in the neighbourhood earlier declined to allow it to be buried there.


After pursuance by the local administration the freedom fighters and atrocity victims backed off a planned siege on the highway leading to Nizami's home while several groups earlier demanded the body be sent to Pakistan for burial. TV footage showed hundreds of people rallying at central Dhaka's Shahbagh Square to celebrate the execution under the banner of Ganojagaran Mancha which was instrumental in building up a massive campaign seeking punishment for the war criminals.