The executions took place at around 12:45 am tonight at the Dhaka
Central Jail after their appeals, the last resort, seeking Presidential
mercy were turned down by the head of the state following completion of
all legal procedures.
Executed Mojaheed is the secretary general of Jamaat e Islami and was
the commander of the Al Badr killing squad, an auxiliary force of the
Pakistan army, which had annihilated scores of Bengali intellectuals in
1971.
Chowdhury, currently the presidium member of Bangladesh Nationalist
Party(BNP), was convicted by the apex court for crimes against humanity
as the key collaborator of Pakistan army, some 44 years ago.
Just before the execution, family members of the two convicts, who
served as ministers and in various key positions during Gen H M Ershad
and Khaleda Zia’s tenures, were allowed to meet them amid tightened
security around the high security prison in Dhaka . The authorities have
also deployed, hundreds of police, paramilitary Border Guards
Bangladesh and elite RAB in hundreds in all major towns across the
country to prevent possible violence by the supporters of the two widely
known war criminals .
Earlier on Wednesday, a four member appellate division bench led by
Chief Justice S K Sinha wrapped up the long judicial process which the
Sheikh Hasina government had initiated in 2010, more then three decades
after Bangladesh becomes an independent through a devastating war in
1971.
In October 2013, a war crimes tribunal found Chowdhury, 66, guilty of
nine out of the 23 charges for crimes against humanity, including
killing and torture of scores of pro-independence people in Chittagong,
where he is known as a “terror”. The apex court on June 16 this year
upheld the death penalty of Mojaheed,67, for planning and instigating
the killing of secular intellectuals and professionals towards the end
of the Bangladesh's Liberation War.
The two death row convicts have sought presidential clemency on Saturday as the last resort to safe their lives
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