Family to meet Mir Quasem today afternoon
The family of death-row convict Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali will meet him at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur on Saturday afternoon.
Tahmina Akhter, wife of Quasem’s son Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, confirmed the news of meeting.
The Kashimpur jail authorities asked the family to meet Mir Quasem at 3:30pm. Securities were beefed up in and around the jail.
The meeting was fixed a day after jail officials said on Friday that Mir Quasem decided not to seek presidential mercy.
Meanwhile, preparations have been taken to execute the war criminal.
Upon being asked by the Kashimpur jail authorities, Mir Quasem on Thursday sought time to decide whether he would seek mercy.
Earlier, his family members met him at the jail on Wednesday.
While talking to reporters, Quasem’s wife Khandaker Ayesha Khatun said her husband wanted to wait until the last minute to decide whether he would seek clemency, and before that he wanted to see his son Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem who remained missing for the last few of days.
He would decide about the mercy plea after talking to his son, she added.
Kashimpur Central Jail. — Focusbangla photo
Earlier in the day, inspector general of prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin said Mir Quasem Ali would get reasonable time for seeking presidential clemency.
The copy of the Supreme Court verdict rejecting the review plea of Mir Quasem reached Kashimpur Jail from Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj around 12:45am on Wednesday.
Jail super Proshanto Kumar Banik read out the SC verdict to Mir Quasem.
The apex court on Tuesday upheld the death penalty for Quasem for the crimes he had committed against humanity during the war of independence in 1971.
On March 8, the Appellate Division upheld the death penalty for Mir Quasem Ali for his war crimes.
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 had sentenced Mir Quasem, the Al-Badr chief in the port city of Chittagong in 1971, to death on November 02, 2014.
On November 30, 2014, he had filed an appeal with the Supreme Court challenging the death penalty.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
