In immediate reaction to the execution of Abdul Quader Molla for crimes against humanity he had committed during the Liberation War, his party Jamaat-e-Islami last night threatened that everyone involved with the trial and the execution process would have to face “dire consequences.”
The party announced a series of programmes including a dawn-to-dusk hartal for Sunday protesting what the party said “planned political killing” of Quader Molla, a Jamaat assistant secretary general.
Acting chief Mokbul Ahmed announced the programme in a statement after the execution carried out at the Dhaka Central Jail at 10:01pm.
Key ally of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, Jamaat will also hold Gayebana Janaza in the city, district and upazila headquarters today, and offer special prayers tomorrow.
The party earlier enforced shutdowns with violence on every single day when the two tribunals pronounced sentences against Jamaat leaders who had masterminded crimes against humanity in collaboration with the Pakistani occupation forces against the people who supported the birth of Bangladesh.
In another statement released in the evening, Jamaat threatened the ruling Awami League with “dire consequences” for executing Quader Molla.
The Awami League and the government would have to pay the price for every drop of Quader Molla’s blood if he was killed, Mokbul said.
“The Awami League will have to face the court in future [for executing Quader Molla]. Also, the government will have to confront mass court for killing him through unlawful and unconstitutional means in a planned way.”
Criticising the rejection of the review petitions, Jamaat, however, urged the party supporters to build resistance against the government’s conspiracy in a “democratic and peaceful way.”
A day before Quader Molla was sentenced life-term imprisonment on February 5, Jamaat issued a warning of waging civil war if the trial had not been stopped and the leader released.
Abdul Latif Nezami, chief of a faction of opposition ally Islami Oikya Jote, said the execution was carried out by a war crimes tribunal which had been questioned since its inception.
“What else I can say about it!” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Asked for reaction, Junaid Babunagari, secretary general of radical Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam, declined to comment on the issue.