Dhaka, Dec. 15 -- At a discussion marking Martyred Intellectuals Day in Dhaka on Sunday, a senior leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami put forward a sweeping and controversial claim: that the mass killing of intellectuals in December 1971 was part of a "well-planned conspiracy" by the Indian military and intelligence agencies.

Mia Golam Parwar, the party's secretary general and a former lawmaker, made the allegation while addressing an audience at the Krishibid Institute auditorium in the capital's Farmgate area. Speaking as chief guest at the event, he said the targeted killing of writers, journalists, academics and artists on December 14, 1971-two days before Bangladesh's victory in the Liberation War-was designed to cripple the intell...