Mir Quasem Ali hanged

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali was hanged at Kashimpur Central Jail on Saturday for crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 War of Independence.

Quasem Ali, 63, was hanged at 10:30pm on Saturday, Proshanto Kumar Banik, senior jail superintendent of Kashimpur Central Jail confirmed the matter to journalists.

After losing his review appeal in the top court, the only option left for Mir Quasem was to seek presidential clemency. But he decided against it.

On Friday, the prison authorities said Mir Quasem refused to seek mercy, after which the family was asked to meet him one last time.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Jamaat executive council member Mir Quasem to death in 2014 for war crimes.

He filed a petition for a review of the appeals verdict that upheld the sentence in March this year.

The Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha dismissed the review petition last Tuesday, clearing all legal obstacles for hanging Mir Quasem.

Mir Quasem, founding president of the Islami Chhatra Shibir, is a member of Jamaat’s policymaking Central Executive Council.

He is the sixth war criminal to see the verdict at its execution level and the fifth top Jamaat leader whose death sentence for war crimes has been upheld in the final verdict.

Jamaat’s assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Molla was the first to be hanged for 1971 war crimes on Dec 12, 2013.

Another assistant secretary general of the party, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, was executed on Apr 11, 2015.

The jail authorities executed the death sentences of Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and BNP Standing Committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury on Nov 21 last year. Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was the last to hang on May 11 this year.