Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami has been hanged for his crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971.
The Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer (chief) Nizami walked the gallows at 12:10 am Tuesday night, jail sources confirmed.
With the execution on the Jamaat chief, Bangladesh so far has executed five war criminals.
The execution took place after Bangladesh celebrated its 46th Independence Day on March 26 this year.
Twenty-six members of the executed war criminal met him inside the Dhaka Central Jail before the execution.
Hours before the execution, additional law enforcers including the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) were deployed in different strategic points of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
According to jail sources, the body of Nizami, also an Al-Badr chief, will be taken to his ancestral home in Pabna, a northern district of Bangladesh, with tight security.
This evening, the order to execute war crimes convict Nizami has been sent to jail, a senior jail official confirmed.
Earlier, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said all preparations have been taken to execute the war criminal Nizami.
On Sunday night, Nizami was shifted to the Dhaka Central Jail from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur.
The full verdict of the Bangladesh Supreme Court rejecting his appeal to commute death sentence had been read out to him on Monday.
A hangman, named Tanvir Hasan Raju, was taken to Dhaka Jail from Kashimpur Jail Tuesday afternoon.
CHARGES FOR WHICH NIZAMI FACES DEATH
• Conspiracy to commit crimes, killing 450 people, raping 30-40 women and deporting Hindus of three villages in Pabna’s Santhia area during Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971
• Ordering the murder of 30 people of Dhulaura village in Santhia in 1971
• Planning and executing the abduction, torture and murder of intellectuals and professionals in Dhaka and elsewhere in 1971
BACKGROUND:
Earlier on December 12 in 2013, 42 years into Bangladesh’s bloody War of Liberation, Abdul Quader Mollah, a key ally of the Pakistani occupation force, was hanged inside Dhaka Central Jail for his wartime offences.
On April 11 in 2015, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mohammad Kamaruzzaman was hanged for his atrocities during the Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971.
On November 22 in2015, Bangladesh executed two war criminals – Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed and BNP standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
According to documents, local collaborators and Pakistani occupation forces killed three million people, raped 200,000 women and displaced about 10 million to refugee camps in neighbouring India during the Liberation War in Bangladesh.
BBN/AD/ANS