Two senior opposition leaders in Bangladesh on Sunday were executed for war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence with Pakistan. One of the men, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, was sentenced for crimes that included murdering Bengali nationalists and pro-liberation intellectuals during his position as second in command of the Eastern Pakistani paramilitary wing of the West Pakistan Army, al-Badr. Mujahid represented Bangladesh Jamaal-e-Islami, the largest Islamic political party in the country, as the Secretary General.

The other, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, was hanged for genocide, torture and other crimes during his leadership position within the paramilitary wing composed of various Eastern Pakistani Islamist parties, al-Shams. Chowdhury was a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and other parties during his political career. Both men were convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh, a domestic war crimes tribunal designed to investigate and try Bangladeshi suspects for their role in war crimes committed during the war of independence, in 2013.