Salauddin, Mojaheed executed for war crimes
Dhaka: Two war criminals, BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, have been executed at the same time for their crimes committed against humanity in 1971, says jail official.
They were executed by hanging at 12:55am Sunday at Dhaka Central Jail, said Inspector General of Prison Syed Iftekhar Uddin.
Both of them were handed down death penalty for their crimes committed during the Independence war in 1971.
Earlier media reports said they had sought presidential clemency, which they were denied. But the families of the two criminals rejected the media claims.
“Both of them have been hanged. The execution took place at 00:45am (1845 GMT Saturday),” Justice Minister Anisul Huq said after Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury lost their final bid to escape the gallows.
Hundreds of police had been stationed outside Dhaka Central Jail where scaffolds had been prepared to execute the two by hanging.
The first sign that the executions had taken place came when four ambulances were driven away from the prison in the old quarter of the capital Dhaka.
After news of the execution broke, many people took to the streets to celebrate and also unfurled national flags near the prison.
The 67-year-old Mujahid was sentenced to death for war crimes such as the killing of the country’s top intellectuals. He is the second most senior member of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami.
Salauddin, 66, was convicted for atrocities such as genocide during the 1971 war when the then East Pakistan split from Islamabad. He is a six-times ex-lawmaker and a top aide to Khaleda Zia, leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the two men’s final appeals, upholding the death sentences originally handed down by a controversial domestic war crimes tribunal in 2013.
The dead bodies of the two war criminals will be taken to their respective home districts where they will be buried by their families.
Salauddin’s family said his body will be taken to Chittagong where he will be buried on possibly on Sunday morning, while Mojaheed’s dead body is expected to be buried in Faridpur.
Salauddin and Mojaheed were among the fourth persons to die for committing war crimes during Bangladesh’s Independence War in 1971 after Jamaat leaders Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla.
Earlier 11 April this Jamaat leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman was hanged for his crimes against humanity during 1971 Independence War while Abdul Quader Mollah, former Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general and a key ally of the Pakistani occupation force, was hanged inside Dhaka Central Jail for his wartime offences on 12 December 2013.
On 18 November, the Supreme Court upheld its previous verdicts on Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, rejecting their pleas for reviewing death penalties for their war crimes.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, dismissed the review petitions of the duo.
The full text of the verdicts was released the next day.
On 14 October, Mojaheed and SQ Chowdhury filed the review petitions with the SC against its verdicts that upheld their death penalties for their crimes against humanity during the 1971 war.
On 1 October, the International Crimes Tribunal had issued death warrants against them.
The SC on 30 September released the full verdicts awarding death penalty to them for their crimes against humanity during the war, clearing the way for the execution of the judgments.
The court on 16 June upheld the death sentence awarded by the ICT-2 to Mojaheed for killing intellectuals during the war.
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on 17 July 2013 awarded Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed death penalty for committing crimes against humanity during the Independence War in collaboration with the Pakistan occupation forces, after finding the Al Badr boss guilty of five, out of seven, charges.
On 11 August 2013, condemned convict Mojaheed filed an appeal with the Appellate Division against his capital punishment awarded by the ICT-2.
Mojaheed was arrested on charge of hurting religious sentiment on 29 June 2010 and later he was shown arrested in a case filed for committing crimes against humanity on 2 August that year.
On 29 July, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the then International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT-1) that had condemned BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury to death for committing crimes against humanity, including rape and mass killing during the Independence War 43 years ago.
On 1 October 2013, the then International Crimes Tribunal-1 found the BNP leader guilty of crimes against humanity during the war of Independence and condemned him to death.