Bangladesh hangs top Islamic tycoon for war crimes: minister

The family has come to terms with the execution of Quasem, a Jamaat-e-Islami leader and one of the financiers of the fundamentalist party.

Ali was the last prominent leader of Jamaat to face execution.

“We are doing our necessary formalities now”. Prison officials had earlier said Ali’s body would be brought to his village home at northern Manikganj district for burial.

“The execution took pace at 10:35 pm (1635GMT)”, he said.

Thousands of extra police and border guards were deployed in Dhaka and other major cities.

Jamaat-e-Islami denounced the charges against Ali as baseless and said its followers were not involved in war crimes.

Bangladesh Saturday evening ordered to execute death row war criminal Ali as he chose not to seek presidential pardon after losing the final legal battle. It was his last chance to see mercy.

Bangladesh’s apex court on August 30 rejected Ali’s final legal appeal against the death sentence given to him by a special tribunal in March 2014. Ali attempted to appeal the ruling but this was rejected by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.

He was convicted in November 2014 of a series of war crimes including the abduction and murder of a young independence fighter.

Expressing its deep sadness over the execution of Mir Quasem Ali, Pakistan on Saturday said the government of Bangladesh should uphold its commitment, as per the Tripartite Agreement of 1974, wherein it “decided not to proceed with the trials as an act of clemency”. “Twenty-two members of his family reached the jail to see him (Ali) for the last time”, private TV channels reported.

News reports said a close aide to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party also was executed Saturday.

Ali’s hanging comes almost four months after Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was executed.

Jamaat-e-Islami, which had openly campaigned against independence, has denied committing atrocities.

After the 1971 war, Ali worked in shipping, banking and real estate and became wealthy. Even the Human Rights Watch has commented saying the procedures of court are not up to the worldwide standards.

Quasem, who led wartime militia al-Badr force in Chittagong to commit crimes against humanity in 1971, is now kept at a condemned cell in Kashimpur high-security prison. Most of the victims were of foreign nationals.