Related News
Bangladesh executes senior Islamist leader for war crimes
Print Edition
Bangladesh yesterday hanged a senior Islamist leader known as the “Butcher of Mirpur,” making him the first person to be put to death for massacres committed during the country’s bloody 1971 war of independence.
“The execution has been carried out,” deputy law minister Quamrul Islam said, adding Abdul Quader Molla, 65, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at 10:01pm in a jail in the capital Dhaka.
The hanging took place just hours after the country’s Supreme Court dismissed Molla’s appeal for a final review of his death sentence.
The dismissal removed the final legal hurdle against his execution.
The wife and children of Molla met the Jamaat-e-Islami leader at a jail in Dhaka for one last time hours before the execution, and found him to be “calm.”
“He has told us that he is proud to be a martyr for the cause of Islamic movement in the country,” Molla’s son Hasan Jamil said after meeting his father.
Security has also been tightened outside the jail gate and in the capital Dhaka, with the authorities deploying paramilitary border guards in key flash points.
Islamists and opposition protesters armed with crude bombs and rocks clashed with police in riots in several cities across the country after the Supreme Court announced the brief verdict paving the way for the execution.
Molla was originally set to be hanged on Tuesday night after he refused to seek presidential clemency.
But in a night of high drama a judge stayed the hanging just 90 minutes before the scheduled execution, amid international concern over the fairness of the war crime trials of mainly opposition leaders.
Molla was found to have been a leader of a pro-Pakistan militia which fought against the country’s independence and killed some of Bangladesh’s top professors, doctors, writers and journalists.
A key opposition official, he was convicted of rape, murder and mass murder, including the killing of more than 350 unarmed civilians. Prosecutors described him as the “Butcher of Mirpur,” a Dhaka suburb where he committed most of the atrocities.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
