BD hangs JI leader for ‘1971 war crimes’

DHAKA: Bangladesh hanged a top leader of an Islamist party on Saturday for alleged atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, the law minister said.

Mir Quasem Ali, 63, a key financier of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), was executed at Kashimpur Central Jail on the outskirts of the capital, for murder, confinement, torture and incitement to religious hatred during the war. Ali was hanged at 10.35pm local time, Law Minister Anisul Haq said.

The execution took place amid a spate of militant attacks in the Muslim-majority nation, the most serious on July 1, when gunmen stormed a cafe in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter and killed 20 hostages, most of them foreigners.

The war crimes tribunal set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 has sparked violence and drawn criticism from opposition politicians, who say it is targeting her political foes. The government denies the accusations.

Since December 2013, five Jamaat leaders, including former top leader Motiur Rahman Nizami, and a leader of the main opposition party, have been executed for war crimes. The party denies its leaders committed any atrocities. —Reuters

Muhammad Anis adds from Islamabad: Condemning the execution of Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali in Bangladesh, Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Senator Sirajul Haq has said that the executions of innocent patriotic citizens in Bangladesh was the murder of the entire humanity.

In a statement here on Saturday, he said that the world community had not accepted the trial proceedings of JI central leader Mir Quasem Ali and if the Pakistan government took up the issue at the world level, the executions of JI leaders in Bangladesh could be stopped even now. However, he warned that if Islamabad remained unmoved, it would have to pay a heavy price for that.

Siraj said that Hasina Wajid was totally under New Delhi’s control while India wanted to eliminate the patriotic elements from Bangladesh before armed invasion there.

He said the world had not given any importance to the reports and statement of the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and 50 members of the EU parliament because those being executed were Muslims. However, he said the situation could change if the Muslim governments and the people of the Muslim countries exerted their pressure on India and Bangladesh in this respect.