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DHAKA, April 11, 2015
Updated: April 11, 2015 20:26 IST
Bangladesh set to hang top Jamaat leader
PTI
The Hindu
AP
In this April 6, 2015 photo,a family member arrives to meet Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, an assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami party, at the Central Jail in Dhaka, Bangladesh.The 62-year-old is set to be executed later today.
Muhammad Kamaruzzaman was found guilty of mass killing, murder, abduction, torture, rape, persecution and abetment of torture in central Mymensingh region.
Bangladesh is set to hang top Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman later today for committing a massacre during the 1971 independence war, a day after authorities abruptly halted his execution process.
Kamaruzzaman, the third most influential leader in the Islamist party, was originally expected to be hanged this morning, but his execution was postponed at the last minute.
“We are prepared to execute the verdict by tonight,” a jail official said this morning as the 62-year-old assistant secretary general of Jamaat, which opposed Bangladesh’s 1971 independence and sided with Pakistani troops, was kept at a cell at the high security Dhaka Central Jail.
Jail officials had earlier said they were ready to execute him as the civil surgeon and other concerned officials including magistrates, who were required to witness the execution under law, entered the prison last evening.
Newsmen and TV cameras crowded in front of the jail gate while police asked shops around the area to shut their business for the night as part of enhanced-security measures.
But the authorities postponed the execution at the last moment. No official reason was given for the delay, but junior home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said told reporters the hanging would now take place later today.
Unconfirmed reports, however, said fears of possible backlash ahead of planned celebration of Bangladesh cricket team’s recent success in the World Cup this afternoon prompted authorities to postpone the execution for a day.
Kamal had earlier said Kamaruzzaman eventually decided not to seek presidential mercy and “he will be given no more time to seek the clemency“.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in May 2013 sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 liberation war.
He was found guilty of mass killing, murder, abduction, torture, rape, persecution and abetment of torture in central Mymensingh region. He was convicted for killing 164 people at a village in his home district in northern Sherpur.
The Supreme Court on November 3 last year upheld his death penalty. The apex court, however, issued the full text of the judgement on February 18 and sent it to the ICT, which immediately issued a death warrant.
The apex court called his crimes “worse than Nazis” when it upheld the judgement of the ICT.
About three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the war.
When the verdict is carried out, Kamaruzzaman will be the second Jamaat leader after Quader Mollah to be executed for the 1971 offences.
The Prothom Alo newspaper quoting an unnamed official said the Jamaat leader told the magistrates that he would not seek the clemency but demanded “some more time”, saying under the Jail Code he deserved seven days time on receipt of the death warrant, which he was served on April 8.
Law minister Anisul Huq and attorney general Mahbubey Alam, however, said the code was not applicable in his case as Kamaruzzaman was tried under a special law called International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 of Bangladesh, which was beyond the purview of the Jail Code.
Execution of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman1971 independence war massacre - The Hindu
_____________
Bangladesh Islamist politician Kamaruzzaman hanged
2 hours ago | Asia
BBC News
One of the condemned man's relatives was greeted by a media scrum after he visited Kamaruzzaman in prison
An Islamist politician convicted of war crimes during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan has been hanged at a prison in Dhaka.
Mohammad Kamaruzzaman of the Jamaat-e-Islami party was found guilty of genocide by a domestic war crimes tribunal in May 2013.
Kamaruzzaman, 62, was convicted of crimes including the killing of at least 120 unarmed farmers.
He had refused to seek clemency from Bangladesh's president.
Kamaruzzaman was the third most senior figure in Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist opposition party.
He is the second war crimes suspect in Bangladesh to be executed.
In December 2013 Abdul Kader Mullah, assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami since 2010 and a former editor of an Islamist newspaper, was hanged after being found guilty on five of six counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Of the others who have been convicted:
§ Former Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ghulam Azam died in custody in 2014
§ Former Bangladesh Nationalist Party MP and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami is awaiting the death sentence after being convicted in October 2014
§ Former Jamaat-e-Islami MP Delwar Hossain Sayeedi has been sentenced to life in jail
§ Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary-General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid was condemned to death in July 2013
§ Former Bangladesh Nationalist Party minister, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was sentenced to death in October 2013
Twenty-one members of the condemned man's family, including his wife and son, visited him in prison on Saturday afternoon.
There was tight security outside the jail ahead of the condemned man's execution, with large demonstrations and counter-demonstrations expected in support of and against the hanging.
Kamaruzzaman (C) refused to seek clemency from the Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid (file photo)
Bloodiest episode
Kamaruzzaman was the assistant secretary-general of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party. He was found guilty in May 2013 of masterminding what the prosecution described as one of the bloodiest single episodes in the independence war.
The war crimes tribunal heard that he played a prominent role alongside Pakistani troops in the "slaughter" of at least 120 unarmed farmers in the remote northern village of Sohagpur which subsequently became known as the "village of widows".
Three women widowed as a result of the killings testified against Kamaruzzaman during his trial. They described how he led Pakistani troops to the village and helped the soldiers line up and execute the farmers.
Kamaruzzaman was found guilty on five out of seven charges of crimes against humanity, including the murder and torture of unarmed civilians. His lawyers insisted that he had not received a fair trial.
Bangladesh independence war, 1971
Civil war erupts in Pakistan, pitting the West Pakistan army against East Pakistanis demanding autonomy and later independence
Fighting forces an estimated 10 million East Pakistani civilians to flee to India
In December, India invades East Pakistan in support of the East Pakistani people
Pakistani army surrenders at Dhaka and its army of more than 90,000 become Indian prisoners of war
East Pakistan becomes the independent country of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971
Exact number of people killed is unclear - Bangladesh says it is three million but independent researchers say there were up to 500,000 fatalities
Bangladesh Islamist politician Kamaruzzaman hanged - BBC News
Updated: April 11, 2015 20:26 IST
Bangladesh set to hang top Jamaat leader
PTI
The Hindu
AP
In this April 6, 2015 photo,a family member arrives to meet Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, an assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami party, at the Central Jail in Dhaka, Bangladesh.The 62-year-old is set to be executed later today.
Muhammad Kamaruzzaman was found guilty of mass killing, murder, abduction, torture, rape, persecution and abetment of torture in central Mymensingh region.
Bangladesh is set to hang top Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman later today for committing a massacre during the 1971 independence war, a day after authorities abruptly halted his execution process.
Kamaruzzaman, the third most influential leader in the Islamist party, was originally expected to be hanged this morning, but his execution was postponed at the last minute.
“We are prepared to execute the verdict by tonight,” a jail official said this morning as the 62-year-old assistant secretary general of Jamaat, which opposed Bangladesh’s 1971 independence and sided with Pakistani troops, was kept at a cell at the high security Dhaka Central Jail.
Jail officials had earlier said they were ready to execute him as the civil surgeon and other concerned officials including magistrates, who were required to witness the execution under law, entered the prison last evening.
Newsmen and TV cameras crowded in front of the jail gate while police asked shops around the area to shut their business for the night as part of enhanced-security measures.
But the authorities postponed the execution at the last moment. No official reason was given for the delay, but junior home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said told reporters the hanging would now take place later today.
Unconfirmed reports, however, said fears of possible backlash ahead of planned celebration of Bangladesh cricket team’s recent success in the World Cup this afternoon prompted authorities to postpone the execution for a day.
Kamal had earlier said Kamaruzzaman eventually decided not to seek presidential mercy and “he will be given no more time to seek the clemency“.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in May 2013 sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 liberation war.
He was found guilty of mass killing, murder, abduction, torture, rape, persecution and abetment of torture in central Mymensingh region. He was convicted for killing 164 people at a village in his home district in northern Sherpur.
The Supreme Court on November 3 last year upheld his death penalty. The apex court, however, issued the full text of the judgement on February 18 and sent it to the ICT, which immediately issued a death warrant.
The apex court called his crimes “worse than Nazis” when it upheld the judgement of the ICT.
About three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the war.
When the verdict is carried out, Kamaruzzaman will be the second Jamaat leader after Quader Mollah to be executed for the 1971 offences.
The Prothom Alo newspaper quoting an unnamed official said the Jamaat leader told the magistrates that he would not seek the clemency but demanded “some more time”, saying under the Jail Code he deserved seven days time on receipt of the death warrant, which he was served on April 8.
Law minister Anisul Huq and attorney general Mahbubey Alam, however, said the code was not applicable in his case as Kamaruzzaman was tried under a special law called International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 of Bangladesh, which was beyond the purview of the Jail Code.
Execution of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman1971 independence war massacre - The Hindu
_____________
Bangladesh Islamist politician Kamaruzzaman hanged
2 hours ago | Asia
BBC News
One of the condemned man's relatives was greeted by a media scrum after he visited Kamaruzzaman in prison
An Islamist politician convicted of war crimes during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan has been hanged at a prison in Dhaka.
Mohammad Kamaruzzaman of the Jamaat-e-Islami party was found guilty of genocide by a domestic war crimes tribunal in May 2013.
Kamaruzzaman, 62, was convicted of crimes including the killing of at least 120 unarmed farmers.
He had refused to seek clemency from Bangladesh's president.
Kamaruzzaman was the third most senior figure in Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist opposition party.
He is the second war crimes suspect in Bangladesh to be executed.
In December 2013 Abdul Kader Mullah, assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami since 2010 and a former editor of an Islamist newspaper, was hanged after being found guilty on five of six counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Of the others who have been convicted:
§ Former Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ghulam Azam died in custody in 2014
§ Former Bangladesh Nationalist Party MP and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami is awaiting the death sentence after being convicted in October 2014
§ Former Jamaat-e-Islami MP Delwar Hossain Sayeedi has been sentenced to life in jail
§ Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary-General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid was condemned to death in July 2013
§ Former Bangladesh Nationalist Party minister, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was sentenced to death in October 2013
Twenty-one members of the condemned man's family, including his wife and son, visited him in prison on Saturday afternoon.
There was tight security outside the jail ahead of the condemned man's execution, with large demonstrations and counter-demonstrations expected in support of and against the hanging.
Bloodiest episode
Kamaruzzaman was the assistant secretary-general of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party. He was found guilty in May 2013 of masterminding what the prosecution described as one of the bloodiest single episodes in the independence war.
The war crimes tribunal heard that he played a prominent role alongside Pakistani troops in the "slaughter" of at least 120 unarmed farmers in the remote northern village of Sohagpur which subsequently became known as the "village of widows".
Three women widowed as a result of the killings testified against Kamaruzzaman during his trial. They described how he led Pakistani troops to the village and helped the soldiers line up and execute the farmers.
Kamaruzzaman was found guilty on five out of seven charges of crimes against humanity, including the murder and torture of unarmed civilians. His lawyers insisted that he had not received a fair trial.
Bangladesh independence war, 1971
Civil war erupts in Pakistan, pitting the West Pakistan army against East Pakistanis demanding autonomy and later independence
Fighting forces an estimated 10 million East Pakistani civilians to flee to India
In December, India invades East Pakistan in support of the East Pakistani people
Pakistani army surrenders at Dhaka and its army of more than 90,000 become Indian prisoners of war
East Pakistan becomes the independent country of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971
Exact number of people killed is unclear - Bangladesh says it is three million but independent researchers say there were up to 500,000 fatalities
Bangladesh Islamist politician Kamaruzzaman hanged - BBC News
