AMN /
Two top opposition leader in Bangladesh have been hanged for war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation war against Pakistan. Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid and BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury were hanged in the early hours today in Dhaka Central Jail amidst tight security.
The executions followed the rejection of mercy pleas of the two leaders by President Abdul Hamid yesterday. The Supreme Court had rejected their petitions to review the death sentences on Wednesday. With Mujahid and Chowdhury’s execution, Bangladesh has hanged four war crimes convicts so far.
67-year old Mujahid, was sentenced to death by the International War Crimes Tribunal on July 17th 2013 for systematically eliminating Bengali intellectuals at the fag end of the Liberation War with the aim of aborting the birth of Bangladesh. 66-year old Salaudin Quader, from Chittagong, was given death sentence on Oct 1, 2013 for mass slaughter of Hindus and Awami League supporters.
The Supreme Court had upheld the capital punishment for both the top politicians in June and July this year, and the International Crimes Tribunals issued the death warrants on Oct. 1
With the executions tonight, four leaders of ‘crimes against humanity’ walked to gallows so far since the country initiated the process to expose to justice the major collaborators of Pakistani occupation forces in 1971.
Jamaat leaders Abdul Quader Mollah was hanged on December 12, 2013 while Mohammad Kamaruzzaman was executed on April 11, 2015.
There are fears the executions could spark fresh unrest in the Muslim-majority nation, which is reeling from a string of killings of secular bloggers as well as the murders of two foreigners in recent months.
Jamaat called a nationwide strike on Thursday, declaring Mujahid’s original trial “farcical” and “aimed at eliminating” the party’s leadership.
New York-based Human Rights Watch asked Bangladesh on Friday to halt the “imminent executions” of Mujahid and Chowdhury, citing “serious fair trial concerns surrounding their convictions”.