Gazipur: Mir Quasem Ali, believed to be the main financer of Jamaat-e-Islami, was hanged on Saturday night for the atrocious crimes he had committed against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 to prevent Bangladesh’s independence.

After over four years of trial, the 63-year-old Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami central leader was executed in Kashimpur Central Jail at about 10:30 pm.

‘Mir Quasem was hanged at about 10:30pm for his crimes against humanity,’ Kasimpur Jail Super Prashanta Kumar Banik told reporters at the jail gate at about 10:44 pm.

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Prisons Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin said he was hanged at about 10:35 pm.

A team of four hangmen, led by Shahjahan, carried out the execution.

This was the first execution of a convicted war criminal outside Dhaka.

The IG (Prisons), Dhaka Range SM Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman, Kasimpur Jail Super Prashanta Kumar Banik, District Magistrate SM Alam, Civil Surgeon Ali Haider Khan and Police Super Harun-ur Rashid of Gazipur were present.

Burial

Escorted by law enforcers, a hearse carrying the body of the executed war criminal started for his village home of Chala village in Harirampur upazila of Manikganj where he buried at a lemon orchard.

The ambulance carrying the body left the jail gate at about 12:30am on Sunday. The other ambulances were also accompanying the hearse.

Preparation for execution

Earlier, Mir Quasem, the chief of Chittagong Al-Badr, an infamous auxiliary force of the Pakistan army during the 1971, was given the final bath followed by an imam administering him ‘tawba’ (seeking pardon to the Almighty), an Islamic ritual, in line with the practice ahead of hanging.

Hours before the execution, his family members were allowed to meet him inside the central jail.

Thirty-eight family members of Mir Quasem coming in six vehicles reached the jail gate at about 3:35pm. They spent one hour and 23 minutes with him and got out of it at about 6:08pm, the jail sources said.

Earlier, police cordoned off the area outside the Kashimpur Jail gate as journalists and onlookers gathered since afternoon as the jail authorities asked Quasem’s family members to meet him. Additional police and RAB members were seen patrolling the area.

Besides, the leave of all jail officials and employees was cancelled while the district administration issued a red alert in the district.

Meanwhile, six platoons of BGB members were deployed in Dhaka while four platoons in Gazipur to strengthen security before the execution.

With the latest execution, six war criminals have so far been executed, while two others—Jamaat leader Ghulam Azam and BNP leader Abdul Alim who had been sentenced to imprisonment unto death—died in jail.

Earlier, Jamaat leaders Abdul Quader Mollah, AHM Kamaruzzaman, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami were executed as they had been awarded death penalty for their crimes against humanity in 1971.

The countdown to Quasem’s execution began after the Supreme Court turned down his review petition on Tuesday.

Jail authorities on Friday started the process to execute the Supreme Court verdict against the Jamaat leader after he decided not to seek presidential mercy.

Earlier on Friday, the Mir Quasem, who was kept at Condemned Cell-40, informed his decision not to seek presidential clemency to the prison authorities.

Capital punishment for Quasem

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death penalty for Quasem for his war crimes, turning down his appeal to review the death penalty.

On 2 November, 2014, International Crimes Tribunal-2 handed down the capital punishment to Quasem over 1971 crimes against humanity. He was given death penalty on two charges, including killing seven people after abduction in Chittagong.

He was also awarded a total of 72-year imprisonment on eight other proven charges of abduction, conspiracy and planning.

As he challenged the verdict at the Supreme Court, it upheld his death sentence on one charge—the killing of young freedom fighter Jasim Uddin at Dalim Hotel—and jail terms on six other charges for his involvement in abduction, confinement and torture of freedom fighters and innocent people.

It, however, acquitted him of the other three charges, including a murder charge on which he was sentenced to death by the ICT-2.

Review Petitions

On 19 June, Quasem submitted his petition seeking a review of his capital punishment.

Justice finally caught up with him with Quasem’s execution, nearly forty-five years after he committed horrendous crimes against humanity. He is the fifth Jamaat leader hanged so far for war crimesQuasem had reportedly paid $25 million to an American lobbyist firm to carry out a smear campaign to make the war crimes trial controversial, the then Law Minister Shafique Ahmed told parliament on 28 April, 2013.

Mir Quasem’s Lifetime

He was born to Mir Tayeb Ali and Rabeya Begum in Manikganj on 31 December, 1952.

Quasem who was made general secretary of East Pakistan Chhatra Sangha on 6 November, 1971, played a key role in forming infamous al-Badr force in Chittagong during the Liberation War. He had set up makeshift torture camps at different places in the port city, including Dalim Hotel in Andorkilla area.

He had been on the run for three years after the Pakistan occupation forces and their local collaborators surrendered on 16 December, 1971.

Known as ‘Bangali Khan’ (Khan referred to as Pakistani occupation forces) for his atrocities, Quasem joined Jamaat-e-Islami in 1980 as an activist.

He became Jamaat’s Shura member in 1985 and established himself as a top businessman in the country, becoming a supplier of funds to his party.

According to a defence petition filed on 19 July, 2013, Quasem was the chairman of Keari Ltd, a real estate and tourism company, Diganta Media Corporation Ltd, which owns Bangla daily Naya Diganta, and now off-the-air Diganta TV, Agro Industrial Trust and Association of Multipurpose Welfare Agencies of Bangladesh, director of Ibn Sina Pharmaceutical Industries, and member secretary of Fouad Al-Khateeb Charity Foundation and Islami Bank Foundation, a sister concern of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd.

He had also held management posts in many other organisations that include Industrialists and Businessmen Welfare Foundation, Allama Iqbal Sangsad, Islamic University of Chittagong, Darul Ihsan University, Centre for Strategy and Peace Studies.

He was arrested on 17 June, 2012, from the office of the Daily Naya Diganta and charges were framed against him on 5 September, 2013.