B’desh Set To Hang Top Islamist Leader

Security was stepped up in Bangladeshi capital today as authorities are set to hang Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for committing war crimes during the country’s 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
“The government is fully prepared for executing the verdict…The execution could take place anytime unless he (Nizami) seeks presidential clemency,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters.
Asked if the 73-year-old chief of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party could be hanged later today, Kamal evaded a direct answer saying “wait, you can see”.
His comments came as elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion joined police in stepping up security around the Dhaka Central Jail in old part of the capital. The jail guards have beefed up the security inside the facility.
Jail officials said as per procedure the full text of the Supreme Court judgment was read out to Nizami hours after it was issued, rejecting his final review petition.
TV reports quoting unidentified jail officials said a group of hangmen from among the prison inmates was kept ready after necessary exercises as per procedure. Shahjahan Ali would lead them as the chief executioner and another inmate Raju would act as his top aide.
Prison officials earlier said jail doctors checked the heath of the death row convict last night after the verdict was read out to him while senior jail officials saw him at his solitary confinement earlier today.
But they remained tight lipped when asked whether Nizami plans to seek the presidential clemency admitting his guilt, an obligatory procedure required to be exhausted ahead of his hanging.
Jamaat on Saturday, however, said: “question doesn’t arise at all to seek mercy to anybody else except Allah”.
Nizami’s his eldest son and lawyer Najib Momen supplemented the party statement, saying “he (Nizami) will not seek clemency to the President”.
President Abdul Hamid has earlier rejected two such appeals by 1971 war crimes convicts, including Nizami’s top aide then Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, who were subsequently executed last year.
A former minister in ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s BNP-led four-party coalition government, Nizami has been in jail since 2010, when he was arrested to be tried 1971 war crimes.
He was given capital punishment in October 2014 by the tribunal after being convicted of “superior responsibility” as the chief of the infamous Al-Badr militia forces in 1971.
He was particularly found guilty of systematic killings of over 450 people in his own village.
Nizami appears to be the last remaining top perpetrators of crimes against humanity as Bangladesh so far executed four war criminals since the trial process began six years ago.(Agencies)