Condemned 1971 war criminal Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Mollah, known as Koshai (butcher) Quader in 1971, was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail at 10:01 pm Thursday.
“Quader Mollah has been hanged at 10:01 pm,” IGP Prisons Main Uddin Khandaker told UNB after the execution.
State Minister for Home Affirs Shamsul Hoque Tuku told UNB that Mollah’s body will be handed over to his family members for burial at his village home in Faridpur district.
Prisoner Shahjahan, serving a 60-year jail term, was the hangman. He was assisted by other prisoners Sheikh Quamruzzaman, Kalu Miah, Bablu Miah, Faruk and Jony.
Quader Mollah was hanged in presence of Dhaka district magistrate Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Harun, Civil Surgeon Abdul Malek Mridha and Imam Abdul Hai amid tight security in and around the jail, said a prison official.
Mollah’s execution came after two days of drama and various speculations, and international pressure. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday night stayed the operation of the execution order of Abdul Quader Mollah until 10:30am Wednesday.
The stay order came barely one and half hours of his planned execution on Tuesday night. Mollah was supposed to be hanged at 12.01 am on Wednesday.
This is the first-ever execution in compliance with the Supreme Court verdict against a 1971 war criminal, an election pledge of the ruling Awami League.
Quader Mollah was hanged in presence of the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police of Dhaka, and civil surgeon and magistrate amid tight security in and around the jail, said a prison official.
After receiving the latest SC order throwing out Mollah’s sentence–review plea, the Home Ministry earlier in the day directed the prisons authority to take steps for hanging the Jamaat leader by neck till his death as ordered by the apex court.
Upon the government’s appeal seeking death sentence for him, the
Appellate Division on September 17 sentenced Quader Mollah to death, overruling the February 5 judgment of International Crimes Tribunal-2 that had awarded him life term imprisonment for war crimes committed in 1971.
The 65-year-old Jamaat leader was found guilty of the crimes against humanity, including murders of pro-liberation civilian Pallab, an inhabitant of Nawabpur in old Dhaka city, poet Meherrunnesa and her family, journalist Khandker Abu Taleb of the daily Ittefaq, and mass killings at Alubdi, and killing of Hazrat Ali, then Awami League leader, along with his wife, two minor daughters and an infant son, followed by rape.
Source: UNB Connect
