Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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May the justice prevail.

Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes - DAWN.COM

DHAKA: Bangladesh on Thursday hanged Abdul Quader Molla, a top Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader known as the “Butcher of Mirpur," making him the first person to be put to death for massacres committed during the country’s bloody 1971 war of independence.

“The execution has been carried out,” deputy law minister Quamrul Islam told AFP, adding that Abdul Quader Molla, 65, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at 10.01 pm (1601 GMT) in a jail in the capital Dhaka.

The hanging took place just hours after the country’s Supreme Court dismissed Molla’s appeal for a final review of his death sentence, removing the last legal option against his execution.

The wife and children of Molla met the Jamaat-e-Islami leader at a jail in Dhaka for one last time hours before the execution, and found him to be “calm.”

“He has told us that he is proud to be a martyr for the cause of Islamic movement in the country,” Molla’s son Hasan Jamil told AFP after meeting his father.

Security has also been tightened outside the jail gate and in the capital Dhaka, with the authorities deploying paramilitary border guards in key flashpoints.

Islamists and opposition protesters armed with crude bombs and rocks clashed with police in riots in several cities across the country after the Supreme Court announced the brief verdict paving the way for the execution.

Molla was originally set to be hanged on Tuesday night after he refused to seek presidential clemency.

But in a night of high drama a judge stayed the hanging just 90 minutes before the scheduled execution, amid international concern over the fairness of the war crime trials of mainly opposition leaders.

Molla was found to have been a leader of a pro-Pakistan militia which fought against the country’s independence and killed some of Bangladesh’s top professors, doctors, writers and journalists.

A key opposition official, he was convicted of rape, murder and mass murder, including the killing of more than 350 unarmed civilians. Prosecutors described him as the “Butcher of Mirpur,” a Dhaka suburb where he committed most of the atrocities.

Hundreds of secular protesters erupted in celebration hearing the news of the execution. They have been camping at Shahbagh square in Dhaka since Tuesday night, shouting slogans including: “Hang Quader Molla, hang war criminals.”

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

I'm surprised that he stayed in Bangladesh after the war, I would have thought that Pakistan would have offered him asylum.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

Every reputable international organisation has maintained the whole trial procedure was very flawed and biased, given little chance if any for defendants to put up their case.

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When you do executions like that after forty years, it's not justice, it's dirty politics.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

Not so certain about judicial process how good or bad it was.... I wish we can execute criminals who are actually convicted after following proper judicial process. Heck we can't even hang Mumtaz Qadri, Salman Taseer killer.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

We will see how things unfold, Bangladesh was pretty stable all these years. I feel it's going down the path of chaos from here onwards.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

Molla

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami has announced to observe Friday as a day of protest against the capital punishment of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh leader Abdul Quader Molla, Geo News reported.

In a statement issued here Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Munawar Hassan, decried his Bangladeshi comrade’s execution as deplorable.

“Molla embraced martyrdom with a smile on his face. His unflinching spirit is commendable. His execution at the hands of a “slanted” war tribunal is nothing but a mockery of justice,” said he.

JI will also offer Molla’s in-absentia funeral prayers in various cities across Pakistan today.

Going forward, JI Ameer also picked apart the government of Pakistan for being ‘criminally silent’ over Molla’s unjust hanging.

“Had the government wanted it could have convinced Dhaka to spare Molla by referencing the agreements between former premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the then Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman”, said Hassan.

He added that Molla indeed became a victim of patriotism.

Bangladesh on Thursday hanged Molla, making him the first person to be put to death for massacres committed during the bloody 1971 war of independence.

Deputy Law Minister Quamrul Islam announced the execution, saying Abdul Quader Molla, 65, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, was hanged by the neck at 10:01 pm (1601 GMT) in a jail in Dhaka.

The execution is expected to further inflame tensions in Bangladesh after weeks of deadly violence, and there were reports of fresh clashes soon after the announcement.

The hanging took place just hours after the Supreme Court dismissed Molla´s appeal for a final review of his death sentence, removing the last legal obstacle to his execution. His wife and children were allowed a final meeting with him at the prison hours before the execution, and found him to be “calm”.

“He told us that he is proud to be a martyr for the cause of the Islamic movement in the country,” Molla´s son Hasan Jamil said after the meeting. Shortly after the execution, Molla´s body was driven by police escort to his hometown, where he will be buried.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

I was shocked to hear. I thought they would pardon him on humanitarian grounds or something.
He was pro-Pakistan and should've moved to Pakistan after West Pakistan's separation.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

i think justice is always served no matter how long it takes if the trial process was fair and best defense team was available to this guy. it makes no sense to let someone go just because the case is an old one against him.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

But why took so long? Why not after it happened? What's the Bengali Govt motive now?

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

How can we?

Ex CJ of Punjab high court ... Khawaja Shareef after retirement is to defend Mumtaz Qadri, an obvious murderer, as lawyer ... so if people with such mentality were judges (and are judges even today, especially after Iftikhar Chaudhari inducted many with similar mentality) than what can one say about Pakistan justice system.

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If last alive Nazi is punished today for war crimes he committed in WWII is it justice delayed justice denied kinda scenario?

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

^^^ But what BD did with JI leader was not only wrong but unjustified. It was witch-hunt, nothing else.

You cannot blame or punish someone who was acting according to their beliefs at the time, even though their actions may seem victimisation.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

Are you serious?

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

^^^ yes, I am serious (even though I have no sympathy for JI and consider that Bengalis were victimised unfairly). Just imagine:

PPP getting into power (that happened in 1988) and then hanging all who were associate of Zia, just because Zia wrongly hanged Bhutto and while trying to crush MRD movement in Sindh, killed many PPP workers and innocent Sindhis ...

Later, PML comes into power (after above episode if happens) and start hanging PPP members as revenge of PPP hanging PML members as revenge of Bhutto and people killed during MRD movement.

Imagine, MQM getting into power and start hanging PPP and PMLN members making excuse that they killed many MQM workers and innocent Karachi civilians during military operation in Karachi.

Imagine, ANP coming to power again in KPK and start hanging PTI and JI members blaming that they are part of Taliban and Taliban killed many ANP members.

And so on … as if that would happen, then there would be no peace ever in Pakistan. Same one can say about BD.

That is why … one is recommended to learn from Mandela and Mandela is considered as Moghul amongst politicians. If Mandela had started persecuting white Africans and their leaders, making excuse that they killed many blacks before power change, then probably even today there would have been no peace in South Africa.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

Please define and explain those** beliefs at the time**. Which according to you made their actions seem victimization.

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Sorry, but you are confusing 2 things. The govt policy verse individuals responsible for criminal offenses....state exist to dispense justice to all w/o fear or favor. Btw, if you are logic was applied to broader context no would ever go to jail b/c everyone holds some kind of beliefs. Why a person who kills 1 person to go jail where a person who killed 300 or 300k people escape justice b/c of his/her beliefs? How exactly does that makes sense?

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

^^^ Brother, I think you misunderstood me. I never said that a criminal should not be punished if he has done crime due to belief or whatever reasons. Actually, we are not talking about criminals here because criminal is a person who breaks the law of the land at the time he acted and could be persecuted, and not one who is considered criminal due to change in circumstances or later laws.

Whatever JI leaders and workers did, it was state policy of the land at the time and thus cannot be called crime … neither anyone could have persecuted them for their acts at the time they committed the acts (that to Bengalis, to us as well as world, may look crime).

Crime of JI leaders and workers was only that they were towing the line of the state (possibly due to their own beliefs) and thus were considered as law abiding citizen of the state by Pakistan government of the time. They became criminals after change in circumstances that happened after their acts.

When state gets involved in criminal activities, giving protection of state to perpetrators at the time, and circumstance changes (due to struggle of victims or whatever), then politicians or whoever takes over the rein of the state (country or land), they have two choices. One is to start witch-hunt and other is to forgo past and start state policy anew.

When witch-hunt starts, peace is left behind, country gets into chaos, instability follows, and occasionally new changes can come too repeating the cycle ... as regardless of any change, both groups remain in state, one considering past as right and other considering change as right.

When new people in power forgo past and start everything a new, then peace, stability and prosperity follows.

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

Interesting Blog by English Reporter David Bergman on this incident!

7.05 pm: Why Molla should not be executed This blog contains neutral and independent news, analysis and commentary on the Molla execution issue, but let me be very clear about my own position on the imposition of the death penalty of Quader Molla. I am very much against it.
Yes, I do not support the death penalty, but that is not why I am against the execution of Molla. Yes, I think there are many legal inadequacies in the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973, but that is also not the reason? Yes, I am aware of the many controversies and scandals that have taken place at the tribunal (including the abduction of a defence witness, the release of skype conversations/e-mails showing at least one of the tribunal judges in collusion with the prosecution and the government, and at least 6 tribunal investigators and prosecutors seeking last month Awami League parliamentary seats) – but again these controversies, and there are many more, are not in themselves the reason why I object to Molla’s death penalty.

The reason for thinking that it is outrageous to put Molla to death is because of the flimsiness of the evidence on the charge which he has been sentenced to death and the fact that the tribunal simply did not allow him to put forward his defence, restricting his witnesses to five.

On the evidence issue (I will discuss the witness issue later) , please look below at Tuesday at 7.05pm which details the situation.
What we have is as follows: a witness, giving evidence in court 42 years after the event stating that Molla was present, who had previously given two statements - one to a 1971 museum and another to the investigation officer - neither of which stated that Molla was present at the scene, and one of which stated that she was not even present at the time of the incident.

And we have a court – both tribunal and appellate division – who have decided not to take into consideration any of these previous statements which do obviously raise issues about the credibility of the witness.

Added to this, there is the fact that Momena, who was 13 years old in March 1971, had a breakdown after the murder of her family and, as far as the evidence shows, had never in the 42 year period between then and the time she gave her testimony in court, mentioned to anyone that Molla was present at the time her family was killed.

Bangladesh War Crimes Tribunal: Molla’s execution

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Re: Bangladesh hangs Jamaat leader for war crimes

An interesting discussion with JI BD’s lawyer from Bangladesh, Liyaquat Jatoi JI, and Babar Awan: