Death sentences of death row war crimes convicts Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mujahid have been executed in the Dhaka Central Jail. They were hanged simultaneously on a single platform at Dhaka Central Jail. The two walked the gallows around 12:55am together. The duo were silent when they were being taken to the gallows. “They did not react. The ropes were pulled simultaneously,” Detective Brach Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam said.Two separet ambulance carrying SQ Chowdhury and Mujahid’s body came out of the Dhaka Central Jail gates at 2:53 am. SQ Chowdhury will be buried home district Chittagong and Mujahid will be buried at his home district Faridpur as per the wishes of there families.
UNB add: After nearly six years of long trial, condemned war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed were finally hanged at Dhaka Central Jail in the early hours of Sunday for the atrocities they had committed during the Liberation War in 1971.
This was for the first time two war criminals were executed together at the same night since the beginning of the war crimes trial.
Though no war criminal had sought presidential clemency earlier for their horrific war crimes, Salauddin Quader and Mojaheed did it only to be turned down by President Abdul Hamid.
“Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed were executed at 12:55am, said Inspector General (Prisons) Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin.
The Inspector General (Prisons), Additional Inspector General (Prisons) Col Fazlul Kabir, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Sheikh Tofazzal Hossain Miah, civil surgeon Abdul Malek Mridha and district magistrates Tanvir Ahmed Fakir and Khandaker Mushfiqur Rahman were present.
The two war criminals were executed after President Abdul Hamid rejected their mercy petitions.
Their bodies will be sent to their respective village homes for burial, said jail sources.
With the latest two executions, four war criminals have so far been executed, while two others -- Jamaat leader Ghulam Azam and BNP leader Abdul Alim who had been sentenced to imprisonment unto their deaths -- died in jail.
Earlier in the day, BNP standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed sought presidential clemency.
“Salauddin Quader and Mojaheed submitted their separate mercy petitions to the President,” Law Minister Anisul Huq had told UNB.
The petitions were first sent to the Home Ministry from where those sent to the Law Ministry and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and finally to President Abdul Hamid.
The President, however, turned down the petitions after review.
Earlier in the morning, two magistrates -- Tanvir Ahmed Fakir and Khandaker Mushfiqur Rahman -- entered the Dhaka Central Jail around 9:30am to know whether they would seek presidential mercy.
Meanwhile, Jamaat termed the news of several media outlets over seeking presidential clemency by its leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed ‘confusing and false’.
After meeting his father along with other family members at the jail, Salauddin Quader’s youngest son Humman Quader Chowdhury claimed that his father did not file any mercy petition to the President.
On Thursday evening, the SC released the full text of the verdicts turning down the review petitions of Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury against its earlier orders upholding their death sentences for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
The written verdicts of the duo reached Dhaka Central Jail from the International Crimes Tribunal around 8:42pm on Thursday. Earlier, the verdicts traveled to the International Crimes Tribunal from the Supreme Court around 7:30pm.
On the same day, family members of both of them met them at Dhaka Central Jail.
On Wednesday, the SC upheld its previous verdicts on BNP standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed, rejecting their pleas for reviewing their death penalties for war crimes, clearing the way for the execution of the judgment.
Salauddin Quader and Mojaheed on October 14 filed the review petitions with the Supreme Court against its verdicts that upheld their death penalties.
On October 1, the International Crimes Tribunal had issued death warrants against them.
The Supreme Court on June 16 upheld the death sentence awarded by the ICT-2 to Jamaat leader Mojaheed for killing intellectuals during the war.
The International Crimes Tirbunal-2 on July 17, 2013, awarded Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed death penalty for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in collaboration with the Pakistan occupation forces, after finding the AL Badr boss guilty of five charges, out of seven.
On August 11, 2013, condemned convict Mojaheed filed an appeal with the Appellate Division against his capital punishment awarded by the ICT-2.
On October 1, 2013, the then International Crimes Tribunal-1 found Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, the son of Pakistan Convention Muslim League president Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, guilty of crimes against humanity during the war of Liberation and condemned him to death.
On October 29 of the same year, the BNP leader filed an appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the ICT verdict.
RI