Nizami’s death warrant reaches Dhaka Jail

The Appellate Division on Tuesday released the full verdict that rejected Motiur Rahman Nizami’s appeal and  upheld the death row war criminal’s three death sentences.
At 9.37 PM Tuesday, Dhaka Central Jail received the death warrant issued by ICT-1 for Nizami’s execution, senior jail superintendent Jahangir Kabir told New Age.
He said that the death warrant was immediately forwarded to the Kashimpur Jail, where death row war criminal Nizami has been housed.
On January 6, a four-judge bench of the apex court chaired by the Chief Justice, in a brief verdict upheld three death sentences handed to Nizami by the International Crimes Tribunal-1.
He was handed death sentences for planning intellectuals’ killings in Dhaka in the last days of the Liberation War, murdering 450 people in three Boushgari, Ruposhi and Demra, three villages and murdering 52 others in the village Dhulaura,.
The trial court found Nizami guilty of committing other crimes in the four villages, in Pabna, his home district.
‘It  is  the  solemn  duty  of  the  courts to  award  proper  sentence  commensurate  with  the gravity  of  the  crimes,’ said the apex court verdict.
‘Inappropriate  and lesser  sentence causes  injustice  not  only  to  the  victims  of  crimes but  sometimes  to  the  whole  society,’ it said.
Terribly shocked over the crimes, the whole society waited for too long to see that the perpetrators got proper punishments, it said.
It said, following orders from Nizami, Al-Badr force men murdered Dr Abdul Alim Chowdhury after abducting him from his residence on December 15, 1971.
The evidence provided by Shamoli Nasrin Chowdhury, his wife, proved that on Nizami’s orders the death squads of the Al-Badr force murdered Alim Chowdhury and the other intellectuals towards the fag end of the Liberation War, said the verdict.
It was also proved beyond any doubt that Nizami aided the Pakistani force in the mass-killings of about 450 unarmed
civilian in the villages of Boushgari, Ruposhi and Demra on May 14, 1971 and that he personally took an active part in that holocaust, said the apex court verdict.
The apex court upheld Nizami’s death sentence for his involvement with Dhulaura genocide and his life term for the murder of Liberation War supporter Sohrab.
The apex court upheld Nizami’s life for murdering freedom fighters, Bodi, Rumi, Jewel and Asad after abducting and torturing them.
It was proved beyond the  reasonable doubt that as the leader of the Al-Badr force Nizami had effective control and command over the Al-Badr men and acquiesced their atrocities including the intellectuals’ killings.
The speeches Nizami delivered at different meetings and other exhibits showed that he praised and encouraged the Islami Chhatra Shanghha and Al-Badr Bahini members and directed  them to co-operate with the Pakistani occupation forces and all these proved that he had  control over the members of Al-Badr Bahini even after 30th September, 1971, said the verdict.
Later, attorney general Mahbubey Alam told reporters that if Nizami does not seek  review of the verdict in 15 days as he is entitled to, the government would start the process of his execution.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net