Bangladesh hangs 2 opposition leaders over war crimes

Sunday, November 22, 2015 4:30 am

Mohammad Mujahid: executed

Two senior Bangladeshi opposition leaders were executed early Sunday for war crimes committed during the 1971 independence war with Pakistan after their last-ditch pleas for clemency were rejected.

Justice Minister Anisul Huq said Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury had been hanged at Dhaka’s Central Jail in a move that was celebrated by supporters of the ruling Awami League.

“Both of them have been hanged. The execution took place at 00:45am (1845 GMT Saturday),” Huq told AFP.

Hundreds of police had been stationed outside the jail in Dhaka’s old quarter where scaffolds had been prepared to execute the pair.

Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury: also killed

The first sign that the executions had taken place came when four ambulances were driven away from the prison shortly before 1:00am.

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.

Chowdhury, 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.