Bangladesh set to execute war crimil Mir Quasem

Dhaka, Sept 3: As Bangladesh jail authorities prepare to execute war crimil Mir Quasem Ali, his family has been asked to meet him one last time at the Kashimpur Central Jail on Saturday. The family has come to terms with the execution of Quasem, a Jamaat-e-Islami leader and one of the finciers of the fundamentalist party. Quasem on Friday refused his last life line — presidential clemency.

In a Facebook post, Quasem’s daughter Sumaiya Rabeya said her father was a soft-hearted person who would cry every time he made a speech. She said the family was going to meet him, probably for the last time, and had come to terms with his impending execution. This would only make him a martyr, something that he had struggled for during his entire life, said Quasem’s daughter Sumaiya, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

Quasem’s wife Khandaker Ayesha Khatun has been asked by the prison authorities to meet her husband on Saturday late afternoon. The execution of death sentence now awaits the government’s clearance. No official announcement was made until Saturday morning about it.

The jail Superintendent Prashanta Kumar Banik told bdnews24.com on Friday night, “The jail authorities are always ready to carry out the government’s order. The hanging will be executed once clear instructions are received from the top.” Quasem, 63-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami leader and business tycoon whose atrocities during the 1971 Liberation War in Chittagong earned him the nickme ‘Bangali Khan’, can be executed any time.

On Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Court upheld his death pelty for war crimes, Quasem had sought time to decide his next course of action. He was sentenced to death in 2014 by the country’s specially constituted Intertiol Crimes Tribul (ICT), for the atrocities he committed during the 1971 Liberation War as an Al-Badr commander. His last review petition was rejected by the Appellate Division of the apex court on Tuesday. Quasem had spent a huge sum of money to appoint a US lobbyist to make the war crimes trials controversial. (IANS)