Ghulam Azam - Years in Exile

Years in Exile

After the war, the Bangladesh government declared the newly independent country to be secular and religion based political parties were banned. On 18 April 1973 the government revoked the citizenship of Ghulam Azam and thirty-eight other alleged collaborators of Pakistan Army. Azam refused an offer of amnesty from the then Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to return to Bangladesh and renounce Jamaat politics, choosing to live in exile in Pakistan and England until 1978, when President Ziaur Rahman restored multi-party democratic system, Jamaat re-launched itself, seizing the democratic opportunity, and soon Ghulam Azam returned to Bangladesh on a temporary visa.

submitted allegations against Ghulam Azam to a mock court called "the People's Court" in 1992, alleging that after 1971 Azam tried to convince many political leaders of Middle East and Pakistan not to support the newborn nation.

Ghulam Azam has himself stated that all such allegations are completely false, politically motivated, and has challenged his accusers to present proof for them.

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