Execution of Mir Quasem anytime

Condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali will be executed any time now as he has decided not to seek presidential clemency, the last option for a death row convict to avoid the gallows.

The 63-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami leader made the decision yesterday afternoon after the Kashimpur Central Jail-2 authorities asked him for the third time whether he would seek presidential mercy, Prashanta Kumar Banik, senior jail superintendent of the prison, told The Daily Star.

Quasem, who led ruthless militia Al-Badr in Chittagong to commit crimes against humanity in 1971, is now kept at a condemned cell in the jail.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said there is no legal bar now to execute Quasem as he has decided not to seek presidential clemency.

“Now the government can make preparations for his execution,” he told this correspondent.

The authorities, however, are yet to disclose the time and the place of Quasem's execution.

Talking to Our Gazipur Correspondent at 9:35pm, Prashanta said, “Mir Quasem will not be executed tonight.” He, however, declined to say when and where the convict would be executed.

Tahmina Akhtar, daughter-in-law of Quasem, told this correspondent at 9:30pm that they were yet to get any call from the jail authorities to meet Quasem.

The jail authorities usually ask family members of a death row convict to meet him for the last time before execution.

When Our Gazipur Correspondent visited Kashimpur jail area around 7:00pm, he found that additional policemen were deployed there and journalists were waiting outside the jail. All the shops on the jail road pulled their shutters down around 7:00pm.

Harun-ur-Rashid, superintendent of police in Gazipur, told this newspaper that he didn't get any call from the jail authorities. They, however, beefed up security around the jail area.

On Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Court upheld Quasem's death penalty for 1971 war crimes, the Jamaat leader, widely considered as top financer of the Islamist party, sought time to decide his next course of action. He sought more time when the authorities asked him the same question the following day.

After meeting her husband on Wednesday, Quasem's wife Khandakar Ayesha Khatun said her husband wouldn't decide on his next course of action until their son, allegedly picked up by unidentified men 22 days ago, returns home.

His son Ahmed Bin Quasem was allegedly picked up by plainclothes men from his Mirpur DOHS home in the capital on August 9 night. He has remained traceless since then.

On Wednesday, Inspector General of Prisons Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin said the convict would get “reasonable time” to make his decision but the time wouldn't be more than seven days.

About the place of execution, Iftekhar said, “He [Quasem] is now in Kashimpur Central Jail and we'll consult all stakeholders and decide on the place of execution.”

Earlier, five war criminals were executed at Dhaka Central Jail, which has been relocated recently to Keraniganj.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch urged the Bangladesh government to halt the execution of condemned war criminal Quasem.

“The death sentence against Mir Quasem Ali, a central executive committee member of Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami, should be suspended with immediate effect,” the HRW said in a statement yesterday.

“It is critical that the Bangladesh government ensures justice for the awful crimes against civilians in 1971, but that requires it to uphold international fair trial standards,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of the HRW.

BACKGROUND

On Tuesday, the SC dismissed Quasem's petition seeking a review of the judgment that upheld his death penalty for crimes against humanity in 1971.

The apex court released the full verdict and sent it to the International Crimes Tribunal.

The ICT then sent copies of the verdict to Dhaka Central Jail, the office of Dhaka district magistrate, and law and home ministries. The Dhaka jail sent a copy to the Kashimpur jail.

In November 2014, the ICT-2 sentenced Quasem to death on two charges and awarded him different jail terms on eight other charges.

According to the case documents, he had set up a torture camp at Dalim Hotel in the port city during the Liberation War. On his instructions, many freedom-loving people were tortured and killed at the camp.

Quasem challenged the verdict at the apex court.

On March 8 this year, the SC upheld his death sentence on one charge -- the killing of young freedom fighter Jasim Uddin at Dalim Hotel -- and jail terms for his involvement in abduction, confinement and torture of freedom fighters and innocent people.

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

Quasem filed the review petition on June 19.