President rejects mercy petitions of Mojaheed, SQ Chy

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury

Star Online Report

President Abdul Hamid has rejected mercy petitions of death row war criminals Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said.
“The President has rejected the two convicts’ mercy plea and we have got the order through the home secretary,” the minister told The Daily Star at 9:50pm.
“Since the pleas have been turned down, we are taking preparation to execute the death sentence,” he added.
Both the convicts have been kept at the Dhaka Central Jail, where preparation has been going on for the execution.
Law Secretary Abu Saleh Sk Md Zahirul Haque reach Bangbhaban, the office-cum-residence of the president at 8:05pm with the petitions – the last resort of the two condemned war criminals to avoid execution.
Earlier, the petitions were taken to home and law ministers for the opinion.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told The Daily Star this afternoon that the petitions reached his desk around 2:30pm.

He said the petitions, labeled “Appeal for mercy” on top, were being sent to the Prime Minister’s Office after being viewed by law minister – when The Daily Star called him around 5:00pm.
Around 7:30pm, the law minister held a press briefing at his Gulshan residence where he asserted that the mercy pleas were filed in accordance with Article 49 of the Constitution – the section relating to the presidential clemency.
As part of heightened security measures, authorities have decided to deploy paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Dhaka and Chittagong from 6:30pm this evening.

Security has been tightened around the Dhaka Central Jail gate. Photo: Rafiul Islam.

Security around Dhaka Central Jail and adjoining areas was heightened. A large number of law enforcers including police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and prison guards were deployed.
All shops and establishments around the jail area were ordered to shut by 8:00pm. Onlookers were asked to clear the area. The road leading to jail from Chawkbazar was closed around 7:40pm.
Meanwhile, family and lawyers of SQ Chowdhury and Mojaheed were still dubious on whether the mercy petitions were filed at all, after the law minister’s confirmation earlier today.
Around 5:20pm, Hummam Quader Chowdhury, SQ Chowdhury’s son, told reporters he was denied to meet his father at Dhaka Central Jail. “We don’t know yet if he filed mercy petition.”
“We don’t believe that our father filed for mercy,” said Fazlul Quader Fayaz, his other son. Mojaheed’s son Ali Ahmed Mabrur echoed similar words.
SQ Chowdhury’s family also tried to move a letter to President Abdul Hamid where they highlighted the international community’s “opinion” on the trial of the BNP leader.
Earlier in the day, two magistrates went to Dhaka jail to inquire whether SQ Chowdhury and Mojaheed would seek mercy from the president.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman told The Daily Star they did hand a mercy plea to the magistrates.
Yesterday, the authorities asked Mojaheed and Salauddin whether they would seek presidential clemency, the last option for the two convicts to avoid gallows. Both of them had said they would inform the prisons officials about their decision later.
A day after delivering verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday released its full verdicts that dismissed Mojaheed and Chowdhury’s petitions to review their death sentences originally handed down by two war crimes tribunals in 2013.
Later, jail officials read out the SC verdicts to the war crimes convicts.

Security beefed up across Bangladesh

BGB personnel patrolling a street in Chittagong, the home district of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. Security has been ramped up in the city ahead of the condemned war criminal's execution in Dhaka Central Jail last night. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

Star Report

Security was beefed up further in the capital and elsewhere yesterday in a bid to prevent any act of sabotage centring on the execution of war criminals Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
Vehicles were not allowed since the afternoon to ply the roads going to Dhaka Central Jail where the two convicts had been kept.
The police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel remained vigilant on Dhaka roads and near the jail. Law enforcers were also seen on the roofs of buildings around the jail.
Besides, platoons of Boarder Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were deployed in major cities, including Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi last evening.
The measures were taken hours after Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Salauddin and Mojaheed had pleaded for presidential clemency.
Their long legal battles ended on Wednesday as the Supreme Court dismissed their appeals for review of the verdicts upholding their death penalty handed down by the International Crimes Tribunals in 2013.
Twenty platoons of BGB deployed in the capital were to remain on duty until this morning, said Mohsin Reza, public relations officer at the BGB headquarters in Dhaka.

Debdas Bhattacharya, additional commissioner (crime and operation) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said additional forces had been deployed across the city to prevent subversive activities.
Sixteen teams of special riot force of the police were deployed in the port city, he said, adding they would be on the alert for any untoward incident and conduct raids in different areas.  
Additional forces were also deployed in different upazilas of Chittagong district, said Muhammad Naimul Hasan, additional superintendent of police (special branch) in Chittagong.
A total of 15 platoons of BGB were deployed in Chittagong division around 6:00pm yesterday.
Of those, six platoons in Chittagong city, two each in Lohagara, Satkania and Raozan upazilas and three in Cox's Bazar district, said Lt Col Emarat Hossain, commanding officer of 28 BGB Battalion.
They will be on guard until further instructions, he added.
In Rajshahi, seven platoons of BGB were deployed in the evening, reports our Rajshahi correspondent.
The police were on the alert on roads and in different areas while reserve forces had been kept ready for deployment, said Sushanto Chandra Roy, spokesperson of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.

Two Hanged, Together

SQ Chy, Mojaeed walked separate gallows; jail authorities go for quick execution after president rejects clemency petitions of war criminals

Staff Correspondent

Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed were hanged early today for committing crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War.
The two walked the gallows around 12:55am together at Dhaka Central Jail amid tight security, Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin, inspector general (prisons), told The Daily Star.
The death sentences of Salauddin and Mojaheed, both former ministers, were executed three days after the Supreme Court dismissed his petition to review his capital punishment, originally handed down by two war crimes tribunal in 2013.
Salauddin, self-proclaimed brigadier of Chittagong in 1971, was not involved in politics in 1971, but he actively took part in the election campaign of his father Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, the then president of anti-liberation Convention Muslim League in 17970.
During the war, Salauddin, along with his men and Pakistani occupation forces, unleashed a cold-blooded savagery on five Raozan villages in Chittagong, killing 111 Hindu men. His father and he blamed the Hindu men for his father's defeat in 1970.
Salauddin did not even spare Nutan Chandra Sinha, a social worker and philanthropist. He and his men killed Nutan, dragging him out of a temple where he was praying at the time. He also accompanied the Pakistan army men when the abducted Awami League leader Mozaffar Ahmed and his son, who were later found dead.
Turing their Goods Hill house as a torture centre, Salauddin and his men tortured freedom fighters and pro-liberation people during the war.
After the war, he fled to London, but returned in 1974. Like Mojaheed, he joined politics after 1975 political changeover and became lawmakers several times. He even became a minister during the Ershad regime.
Mojaheed was the president of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then Jamaat-e-Islami's student wing towards the last part of 1971 and became chief of infamous Al-Badr Bahini.
During the nine-month war, being the chief of the Chhatra Sangha and Al-Badr, Mojaheed visited many districts and held meetings with his followers to instigate them in annihilating freedom fighters as well as pro-liberation people.
And towards the end of the Liberation War, Al-Badr men, under his leadership, traced houses, systematically rounded up, tortured and brutally killed the brightest luminaries -- professors, litterateurs, journalists and doctors -- to cripple the country intellectually once and for all.
After independence, Mojaheed went into hiding and resurfaced after the political changeover in the country with the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In time, his political clout grew, and he even became minister of the country whose birth he whole-heartedly opposed and tried to resist.
Their executions came after the president turned down the mercy petitions by both the convicts.
Around 8:30pm, the jail authorities called family members of the two to meet the Salauddin and Mojaheed. The family members went to the Dhaka Central Jail around 9:15pm, lawyers for both the convicts said.
Earlier in the afternoon, the two sought presidential mercy, the last option to avoid gallows, through the jail authorities who in turn sent the petitions to the home ministry.
From the home ministry, the petitions were forwarded to the law ministry and then to the president through the Prime Minister's Office, sources said.
Security was tight throughout the day around the Dhaka Central Jail where the two convicts were kept, and it was further beefed up in the evening when additional police and Rab and members were deployed.
All shops and establishments around the jail area were ordered to shut down by 8:00pm and onlookers were asked to clear the area. The road leading to the prison from Chawkbazar was closed around 7:40pm. Only journalists were allowed to pass through the area to go near the jail gate, that too after verifying their ID cards.
The countdown of their execution began after the Supreme Court dismissed their review petitions on Wednesday. Family members of both the death-row convicts met them at Dhaka Central Jail the following day.
Since yesterday morning, there were unconfirmed reports about their possible execution last night. There was also confusion as to whether they sought presidential mercy.
Around 10:00am, two executive magistrates went inside the jail to know whether Salauddin and Mojaheed would seek mercy from President Abdul Hamid.
Families of both the convicts held separate press conference where they expressed doubt that the two sought clemency.
At the press conference at Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium around 12:00noon, Mojaheed's family members indirectly requested the president to halt the execution until the end of the trial of August 21 grenade attack case, in which the Jamaat leader is an accused.
Salauddin's family members said he would convey his decision on seeking presidential clemency only when he meets his lawyers.
Later around 2:45pm, Law Minster Anisul Huq confirmed that the two indeed sought presidential mercy.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also confirmed that both Mojaheed and Salauddin conveyed their decision to seek mercy in front of the two magistrates.
The mercy petitions reached his desk around 2:30pm, the minister told this newspaper around 5:00pm.
He said the petitions, labelled “Appeal for mercy” on top, were then being sent to the Prime Minister's Office.
But Hummam Quader Chowdhury, Salauddin's son, told reporters he was not allowed to meet his father at the jail. “We don't know yet if he filed any mercy petition.”
“We don't believe that our father sought mercy,” said Fazlul Quader Fayaz, his other son. Mojaheed's son Ali Ahmed Mabrur said the same.
Salauddin's family also tried to submit a letter to the president where they highlighted the international community's “opinion” on the trial of the BNP leader.
Jamaat-e-Islami also claimed that the reports that Mojaheed filed for presidential clemency was “absolutely untrue”.
In a statement sent to the media at 2:50pm yesterday, Jamaat acting secretary general Shafiqur Rahman called upon all concerned not to spread “confusing and dirty propaganda” before the Dhaka Central Jail authorities issued its official statement on this.
“Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed didn't say anything regarding seeking clemency when his family visited him in jail. Family members told media that he wants to consult his lawyers about next course of action,” the statement reads.
Around 8:05pm, Law Secretary Abu Saleh Sk Md Zahirul Haque reached Bangabhaban, the office-cum-residence of the president, with the petitions.
Around 7:30pm, the law minister held a press briefing at his Gulshan residence where he asserted that the mercy pleas were filed in accordance with Article 49 of the Constitution -- the section relating to the presidential clemency.