The government has executed notorious war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid after completing all legal procedures, in line with the International Crimes Tribunal verdicts.
Throughout yesterday, the families of the war criminals made repeated efforts to stop the execution, but in vain. Finally, after meeting the convicts for the last time, both families claimed that the duo had not sought presidential clemency admitting their crimes, as was announced by the jail authorities.
Former BNP lawmaker Salauddin and top Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mujahid were the third and fourth high-profile political leaders to be executed for the crimes against humanity they had committed during the 1971 Liberation War – the first two being Jamaat leaders Abdul Quader Molla and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman.
“They were hanged simultaneously at the Dhaka Central Jail at 12:55am,” Inspector General of Prisons Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune. The official announcement was made by Senior Jail Superintendent Jahangir Alam at 1:50am.
Seven hangmen – Shahjahan, Raju, Abul, Mokter, Hazrat, Iqbal and Masud – were kept ready for executing the war criminals while 12 officials including Dhaka Deputy Commissioner Tofazzal Hossain were present inside the jail to oversee the process.
DB Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam said that the duo were kept on the same execution dock while the hangman, Raju, pulled the lever of the gallows that removed the floor on which the convicts were standing.
Earlier, imam of the jail mosque, Monir Hossain, conducted customary rituals including performing Tawbah or repentance.
After their bodies were hanged for some time, prison doctors examined the bodies and confirmed their death. Later doctors conducted post mortem tests.
Four ambulances carrying the dead bodies left the jail premises around 2:50am amid Joy Bangla chants. Pro-liberation activists also showed disrespect for the war criminals by waving shoes.
As per their families' wish, they would be buried at their ancestral homes – Salauddin in Chittagong's Raozan and Mujahid in Faridpur town.
However, freedom fighters and local Awami League chapters have vowed to resist the burials.
Police and RAB personnel accompanied the ambulances. Local district police were asked to escort the vehicles to the destinations.
After the news broke, war crimes trial campaigners, gathered outside the jail, at Shahbagh and Raozan, celebrated by distributing sweets and bringing out processions.
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP condemned the executions and claimed that the trial was flawed. Jamaat called a countrywide shutdown for Monday. They enforced another shutdown on Thursday.
Earlier, the US Department of State and London-based rights group Amnesty International urged the Bangladesh government to halt the executions alleging that the trial had failed to meet international standards.
Security in and around the Dhaka Central Jail was tightened ahead of the executions. Media crews thronged the scene to cover the historic incident.
Pro-liberation activists who gathered outside the jail kept on chanting slogans demanding quick execution of the war criminals.
Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and additional policemen were deployed in Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Faridpur to avert any untoward incident.
Salauddin, a standing committee member of BNP, was hanged for killing Nutan Chandra Singha and orchestrating three other genocides at Raozan during the war with an intent to exterminate the Hindus and his political opponents from that locality.
He was part of a para-militia force raised by his father Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, a leader of the anti-liberation Convention Muslim League, after the bloody Operation Search Light on the night March 25, 1971.
Mujahid, who had been at the helm of infamous al-Badr force for the last few months of the war, was hanged for the systematic killing of intellectuals. The war crimes tribunal awarded the Jamaat secretary general death sentence for the killing of Hindus in Faridpur, but the Supreme Court later commuted it to life-time jail sentence.
Clemency debate
The two war criminals lost their last resorts as the president turned down their mercy petitions last night. The jail authorities began their final preparation for executing the duo after that. They also asked their families to meet the convicts for the last time.
“The president has rejected their petitions. We have got the order through the home secretary,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said around 10pm.
At least 35 people including Salauddin's wife Farhat Quader Chowdhury and sons Hummam Quader and Fazlul Quader arrived at the jail gate in the evening. Eighteen of them were allowed to enter the jail around 8:50pm.
Coming out of the jail around 10:45pm, Hummam alleged that his father had not signed any mercy petition.
“Who said this rubbish? … After my execution, they [government] will say many new things. They are killing me for failing to defeat me in the elections,” six-time lawmaker Salauddin was quoted by Hummam as saying.
Later the BNP in a statement echoed Hummam. Acting spokesperson Asaduzzaman Ripon claimed that Salauddin's seeking pardon was nothing but a propaganda. Salauddin also told his family that he would get justice in the court of Allah, reads a BNP press release.
Mujahid's family members reached the jail around 10:30pm. A total of 30 members of the family entered the jail in three teams around 11pm and came out nearly one and half hours later.
Ali Afzal Mohammad Khalis claimed that his brother had not sought president's mercy.
In the afternoon, Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters that the convicts had sought presidential clemency.
Family members rejected the announcement. They also criticised the government for not allowing the lawyers to meet the convicts yesterday.
Hummam tried to reach a prayer to the President's Office in person in the afternoon demanding retrial, arguing that the trial was not fair. The president's office did not accept the application.
The family members then went to the jail gate to meet Salauddin, but they were denied a visit. They earlier met Salauddin on Thursday.
The BNP earlier claimed that Salauddin had been denied justice. “He has contributed in the country's independence and sovereignty. He is a clean and honest politician; he is committed and uncompromising in the question of democracy,” Asaduzzaman Ripon said on Thursday.
The chief justice on November 18 lambasted the defence for submitting “fake” documents at the review petition hearing.
Meanwhile, Mujahid's family from a press conference yesterday urged the president to halt the execution saying the trial in the 2004 grenade attack case was still pending. Mujahid, social welfare minister during BNP-Jamaat's 2001-06 tenure, is an accused.
However, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam observed that there was no legal obligation for the government to allow the convicts' lawyers to meet them at this stage. “There is no need of lawyers as the mercy issue is a fully constitutional thing, not part of legal procedure,” he told reporters at his office.
He alleged that the convicts' families were trying to misguide the countrymen and create controversies.
Regarding the appeals for mercy, Salauddin’s lawyer Muhammad Huzzatul Islam Khan said in the evening: “We came to know through media that he [Salauddin] sought presidential clemency. The matter seems dubious.”
Fazlul Quader Chowdhury Fayaz, the elder son of Salauddin, said: “We do not believe that our father has filed an application seeking mercy.”
Mujahid's son Ali Ahmed Mabrur said: “It seems shady and incorrect. It is not authentic … the authorities did not allow the lawyers to meet my father.”
Earlier in the day, two magistrates went to the jail and met the convicts to know about their opinion about filing the mercy petitions. They did not talk to reporters waiting outside while coming out after over four hours.
Wishing anonymity, a high official of the Home Ministry said that Deputy Jailer Md Arif Hossain of Dhaka Central Jail handed the copies of the mercy petitions to Smriti Rani Gharami, additional secretary for home, around 3pm.
The petitions were later sent to the law secretary for the minister's opinion. Anisul forwarded the petitions to the home ministry. Later those were sent to President Abdul Hamid through the Prime Minister's wing at Bangabhaban.
After the president rejected the petitions, the papers were sent back to jail through the home and law secretaries.
Death warrants were issued to execute the war criminals on October 2, a day after the Supreme Court released full verdicts in the two appeal cases. Their review petitions were scrapped by the Appellate Division bench on November 18. The full verdicts were released the same day.
In the full text of its verdict, the Appellate Division said that they had not found any deviation of law or clerical mistakes in the Appellate Division judgement. So there is no reason for commuting the sentences of the death-row convicts.
On Thursday night, the prison officials read out the full verdicts to the convicts. The duo then sought time to think about the mercy petition.
The legal battle
Mujahid was sentenced to death for masterminding the torture and murder of intellectuals at the al-Badr camp set up at Mohammadpur Physical Training Centre in Dhaka, sensing the defeat of the Pakistani occupation forces. On the other hand, Salauddin was awarded capital punishment for murders of freedom fighters and Hindus in Chittagong.
Mujahid's lawyers argued that he could not be sentenced for the crimes committed by al-Badr. On the other hand, the state argued that Mujahid must shoulder responsibility for superior command as the chief of the paramilitia force.
Salauddin claimed that he had been in Pakistan from March 29, 1971-April 20, 1974 when the offences had taken place. But their claims were rejected by the International Crimes Tribunal and the Appellate Division while the prosecution proved the charges by placing witnesses and documentary evidence.
“Cold-blooded murderer” Salauddin was awarded death penalty on October 1, 2013 for killing Kundeshwari Oushadhalay founder Nutan Chandra Singha and three incidents of genocide – at Unosottor Para, Banik Para and Madhya Gohira of Raozan. The Appellate Division upheld his sentence on July 29 this year.
On July 17, 2013, the now-defunct tribunal 2 ordered to hang Mujahid by the neck for the massacre of intellectuals including scientists, academics and journalists, and his involvement in the murder and torture of Hindus in Faridpur.
He appealed against the verdict on August 11, 2013 and hearing began on April 29 this year. On June 16, the Appellate Division delivered its judgement, upholding death for the Jamaat leader for the murders of intellectual.
Hailing from Khabaspur of Faridpur, Mujahid is the son of Muslim League leader Maulana Abdul Ali, who was a member of the Pakistan Provincial Assembly in 1962-64.
In 1970, Mujahid became the Dhaka district unit president of Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student unit of Jamaat-e-Islami. He was made the East Pakistan unit secretary in August/September the same year, and became president of the same unit in October 1971.
He participated in the general elections of 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2008 but was never elected. He was made social welfare minister (technocrat) during the BNP-Jamaat's 2001-06 tenure.
Salauddin and his father joined their hands with the Pakistan Army and auxiliary forces to commit crimes against humanity and genocide in Chittagong area to resist the independence of Bangladesh. They also used their Goods Hill residence as a torture camp.
He left Bangladesh in late September, 1971 after being injured in a grenade attack by the freedom fighters, and returned in 1974. Later he joined Jatiya Party under HM Ershad and became a minister.
He fought the parliamentary election from National Democratic Party in 1991 and came out successful. He joined the BNP in 1996. He served then prime minister Khaleda Zia as parliamentary affairs adviser during 2001-06.
