Bangladesh has hanged a political leader sentenced to death for crimes against humanity during the country’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
Mohammad Qamaruzzaman, an assistant secretary-general of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami, refused to seek presidential clemency, as he became the second person to be put to death since tribunals were set up more than four years ago to try suspected war criminals.
Earlier on Saturday, authorities in Bangladesh heightened security in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere in advance of the planned execution.
Qamaruzzaman’s family members visited him for the last time in Dhaka’s Central Jail, with security tight outside the facility, his lawyer Shishir Manir said.
By Saturday evening, the officials entrusted with the task of executing Qamaruzzaman had entered the jail, a senior prison official told the Associated Press news agency on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
TV stations reported that a grave had already been dug in Qamaruzzaman’s ancestral home outside Dhaka.
Appeal rejected
On Monday, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court rejected Qamaruzzaman’s final legal appeal against the death sentence given to him by a special tribunal in May 2013.
His only recourse would have been to seek a presidential pardon.
Bangladesh executed another Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary, Abdul Quader Mollah, in December 2013 for similar allegations.
Previous war crimes verdicts and Mollah’s execution have sparked violence.
Prosecutors say Qamaruzzaman headed an armed group that collaborated with the Pakistani army in central Bangladesh in 1971 and was behind the killings of at least 120 unarmed farmers.
Bangladesh blames Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators for the deaths of three million people during the nine-month war seeking independence from Pakistan.
An estimated 200,000 women were raped and about 10 million people were forced to take shelter in refugee camps in neighbouring India.
Since 2010, two tribunals have convicted more than a dozen people, mostly senior leaders of Jamaat, which had openly campaigned against independence.
Jamaat says the trials are politically motivated.
Letter from his son:-
Inna-Lillahi-Wa-Inna-Ilaihi-Rajiun. May you Rest In Peace father.
Sheikh Hasina has successfully killed my father. Just because her father was murdered, she thinks everyone else’s father has to be murdered too. Framing an innocent 19 years old boy as Greater Myemensingh’s chief organizer of Al-Badr, then torturing him for several years and finally hanging him to death for the crimes that were surely committed by someone else is worse than the crimes themselves. What this Witch has done to my father will never go unpunished.
“For more than four years you have suffered their torture but it wasn’t enough for them, they had to take your life. Sorry ABBU for not being able to save you from their tyranny. As a son I never expected a better father than you were. You will always remain as the greatest hero of my life. You were not only an amazing father but also a respected Islamic leader who has been loved by millions of people throughout the world. Everyone dies, no one lives forever but everyone isn’t lucky enough to be remembered as a martyr when they are gone. You will be in our hearts for eternity and there is no power which can take that away. This is not the end of you, as there are hundreds of thousands of people who follow your footsteps and a lot more will follow in the future. No matter what, finally you are out of this hellhole and I believe that men like you go to heaven after their death. Not only us family members but everyone who had the opportunity to know you are heartbroken because of your departure from this world. However, we are happy for you as well because you are in a much better place right now than you were.”
Lastly, thanks a lot to all the lawyers who have tried their level best to save my father even at the very last second, the Jamaat and Shibir members who have risked their lives to protest against this tyranny, and also everyone else who has been with us through their prayers and supporting our family in various ways. We are extremely sorry for the lives that have been sacrificed trying to protest for my father. I know thanking you would not be enough and to be honest we can’t even repay the debt we owe you but I can assure you one thing, none of your sacrifices will go in vein. We will always be grateful to you guys for what you have done.
