Nizami was born on Mar 31, 1943 in Monmothpur of Pabna’s Sathia Upazila. He got his Kamil degree in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) from Dhaka’s Madrasa-e-Alia in 1963. He later graduated with a degree from University of Dhaka in 1967.

He was inspired by the political preaching of Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi, who founded Jamaat-e-Islami Hind at Lahore in 1941. Nizami joined its student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha.

He swiftly rose through the ranks of the political outfit, operating in West and East Pakistan, and became Chhatra Sangha president in 1966.

Nizami retained the post until for the following five years and throughout Bangladesh’s struggle for independence.

The Jamaat-e-Islami had actively opposed the secession from Pakistan and collaborated with the invading forces of the Pakistani Army by forming militias.

Nizami was chief of Al-Badr, a militia made up of members of Peace Committee and Islami Chhatra Sangha, for which the incumbent Ameer-e-Jamaat also stands convicted of multiple counts of war crimes. The special court was formed in 2009 to prosecute and investigate individuals for committing war crimes in 1971.

He was elected a Member of Parliament in the election of 1991 and leader of Jamaat’s parliamentary party. He was also elected to parliament from Pabna-1 in 2001 when the Jamaat-BNP coalition took power.

Nizami served as the Minister for Agriculture until 2003 and thereafter as Minister for Industries until 2006.

On March 15, the ICT issued a death warrant for Nizami for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 after the apex court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty. On January 6, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by the Chief Justice, upheld the death sentence of the Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer. The Appellate Division upheld the ICT-1 order sentencing Nizami to death for wartime crimes, including genocide and murder of intellectuals. The apex court upheld his death penalty on three of the four counts of charges while he was acquitted on the rest one. On October 29, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. The tribunal sentenced Nizami, the 1971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate-e-Islami, the capital punishment each on four counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al Badr a criminal outfit. Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on November 23, 2014 challenging the death sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges.

On May 5, the Supreme Court (SC) rejected a petition filed by the condemned war criminal to review his death sentence.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha pronounced the verdict on Thursday (May 5).

Now there is no barrier for the jail authority to execute the death sentence of Nizami as he did not seek presidential mercy.