War crimes: Mir Quasem hanged

War crimes convict Mir Quasem Ali, also a Jamaat-e-Islami leader, was hanged at Kashimpur Central Jail Part-2 on Saturday night, a day after he declined to seek a presidential clemency.
He was hanged at 10:30pm, jail superintendent Prashanta Kumar Bonik told reporters at the jail gate after the execution.
Dhaka range inspector general of police ASM Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman, who was present during the execution, told reporters at the jail gate that Mir Quasem was kept hanging for 20 minutes.
Three ambulances, one of which carried the body, came out of the jail at about 12:30am on Sunday and immediately started for village home in Manikganj under tight security for the burial of Mir Quasem.
Mir Quasem’s wife Khandker Ayesha Khatun told reporters at the jail gate that they wanted to bury Quasem in Dhaka, but he would be buried at his village home as the administration did not allow them to bury him in Dhaka.
New Age correspondent in Manikganj reported that all preparations were taken to burry Mir Quasem at his ancestral home at village Chala under Harirampur upazila in Manikganj.
Harirampur police station officer-in-charge Nazrul Islam said that strict security measures were taken for the burial by the side of a mosque adjacent to his house.
Sources in police said that digging of the grave was completed by 65-year-old Samej Uddin of village Sakuchia under Harirampur and the house and its surrounding areas were guarded by the members of police, Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh.

Freedom fighters gather in the Kashimpur Jail area in Gazipur on Saturday night, demanding execution of war crimes convict Mir Quasem Ali. — Sony Ramany

They said that security measures were also tightened on Dhaka-Aricha highway.
A group of freedom fighters brought out a procession near the jail gate welcoming the execution.
Different organisations including Ganajagaran Mancha brought out processions in Dhaka at places across the country including Chittagong welcoming the execution.
Huge contingent of law enforcers both in civil and uniform were deployed in and around the jail premises from Saturday afternoon.
The inspector general of prisons, Syed Iftekhar Uddin, entered the jail at 7:00pm, Gazipur deputy commissioner SM Alam and civil surgeon Ali Haider later followed him.
Six hangmen including Shahjahan, Ripon, Shahid and Din Islam brought Mir Quasem to the gallows and Shahjahan tightened the noose about his throat.
Twelve armed guards were deployed around the gallows, prison sources said.
Kashimpur central jail mosque imam Mufti Helal Uddin was called in to perform religious rituals, the sources said.
Thirty-eight family members met Mir Quasem at his condemn cell for about two hours from 4:30 PM, said jailor Nashir Ahmed.
The family members included Mir Quashem’s wife Khandker Ayesha Khatun, two daughters, two daughters-in-law and a brother.
Khandker Ayesha Khatun told reporters at the jail gate quoting her husband as saying that Mir Quasem did not ‘fear to die’ as he was going to die as a ‘martyr’.
‘My last wish to see my son Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, picked by plainclothes from his house in broad day light four weeks back, was not materialised,’ she quoted Mir Quasem as saying.
Mir Quasem was the sixth person hanged on charge of crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 War for Independence.
Earlier, Jamaat assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Molla hanged on December 12, 2013, another assistant secretary general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman hanged on April 11, 2015, its secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury hanged on November 22, 2015 and jamaat amir Matiur Rahman Nizami hanged on May 10, 2016. All the five war crimes convicts were hanged at the old Dhaka Central Jail in Dhaka.
The International Crimes Tribunal have so far sentenced 24 people to death and 18 to jail for varying terms on charge genocide and crimes against humanity.
Appeals of two more top war crimes convicts ATM Azharul Islam and Abdus Sobahan, also Jamaat leaders, await disposal by the Supreme Court.
The jail superintendent, Prashanta Kumar Bonik, told New Age that the process of the execution was initiated after he declined to seek mercy.
Mir Quasem was given three days to decide whether he would seek mercy after receiving the copy of the full verdict of the Appellate Division pronounced on August 30 dismissing his petition seeking a review of its verdict that upheld his death sentence.
The rejection of his review petition paved the way for the execution of the 64-year old Jamaat leader Mir Quasem.
The verdict observed that Mir Quasem was an Al-Badr commander who ran a torture cell at Dalim Hotel in Chittagong, and as the commander, he bore superior responsibility for the war crimes committed there. The occupation army of Pakistan had no role there.
As a notorious Al-Badr commander in 1971, Mir Quasem committed various crimes in the port city of Chittagong and particularly at the torture cell.
He was sentenced to death for abducting and killing teenage freedom fighter Jasim Uddin of Sandwip in confinement at Dalim Hotel torture cell and dumping his body in the Karnaphuli River on November 28, 1971.
In recent years he emerged as a business and media tycoon and ran business establishments of Jamaat. He was arrested on war crimes charges on June 17, 2012.
On March 8, the Appellate Division rejected Mir Quasem’s appeal against his death sentence handed by the tribunal on November 2, 2014.
The apex court upheld Mir Quasem’s death sentence only for Jasim’s murder.
It set aside Mir Quasem’s death sentence on the charge of abduction and torture of five people and killing of two of them – Tuntu Sen Raju and Ranjit Das Lalu – at Dalim Hotel in November 1971.
The apex court upheld six sentences handed to Mir Quasem by the tribunal each for 20 years in jail for abducting and torturing freedom fighters and pro-liberation people in confinement.
The apex court set aside two other sentences of imprisonment for varying terms handed to Mir Quasem by the tribunal.
Mir Quasem, was born at village-Munshi Dangi Sutalori under Harirampur upazila in Manikganj on December 31, 1952.
He studied at Chittagong Government College in 1969 and got admission on honours course at the same college and was elected president of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat.
He was the president of Islami Chhatra Sangha Chittagong town unit until November 6, 1971 and held the post of general secretary of East Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangha till the surrender of Pakistani occupation army to the joint command of Liberation War.
During the War of Liberation, Mir Quasem was one of the central commander of Razakars, Al-Badar and Al-Shams Bahini. He was committed crimes against humanity in Chittagong and subsequently discontinuing his education he went into hiding and passed BA from Ideal College in Dhaka in 1974.
He joined the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1980 and had been performing as sura member of Jamaat since 1985.

 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net