War crimes kingpin Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali was executed yesterday night inside Kashimpur Central Jail-2 in Gazipur for his crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 War of Liberation. Superintendent of Kashimpur jail Prashanta Kumar Banik confirmed the hanging of the 63-year old condemned war criminal and said Quasem was hanged at 10:30pm.
Quasem, known as the key financer of Jamaat-e-Islami, was hanged a day after he had refused to seek presidential clemency, the last option to save his life.
A team of four hangmen, led by Shahjahan, carried out the execution. The IG (Prisons), Dhaka Range SM Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman, Kasimpur Jail Super Prashanta Kumar Banik, District Magistrate SM Alam, Civil Surgeon Ali Haider Khan and Police Super Harun-ur Rashid of Gazipur were present, said jail sources.
He is the fifth top Jamaat leader and sixth war criminal executed. Escorted by law enforcers, a hearse carrying the body of the executed war criminal started for his village home of Chala village in Harirampur upazila of Manikganj where he will be buried. The ambulance carrying the body left the jail gate around 12:30 am today, accompanied by other vehicles.
Talking to reporters at a press briefing right after the execution of the Jamaat leader, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the overall situation of the country is normal and no untoward incident was anticipated.
“The execution took place as per the verdict of the highest court. It also reflected and met the expectations of the people,” He said. The minister said that the country’s people were eagerly waiting for the execution of the verdict. “Now they are jubilant as their expectations have been met,” he added.
Asaduzzaman Khan said the law enforcement agencies are fully prepared to tackle any attempt to create disturbance. The country’s people will also thwart such efforts. The people will not tolerate any subversive act as the execution took place following the Supreme Court verdict, he added.
The minister also said that the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is not afraid of any evil forces. “We came to power with the people’s mandate. And we have succeeded in meeting their expectations,” he added.
Earlier, a mawlana (cleric) administered ‘tawba’ to him in the presence of jail officials.
Before the execution, he was bathed and the Gazipur civil surgeon and two other doctors checked his health. The jail compound was lit with floodlights before the hanging.
He was the first war criminal to be hanged inside the Kashimpur Central Jail-2 in Gazipur.
Earlier, six vehicles carrying 45 family members, including Mir Quasem’s wife, daughters, daughters-in-laws and other relatives arrived at the prison around 3:30pm.
They family members included his wife Khandaker Ayesha Khatun, two daughters Sumaiya Rabeya and Tahera Tasmim, two daughters-in-law Tahmina Akter and Shaheda Fahmida Akter, his nephew Hasan Zaman Khan and three children, whose names could not be known.
The authorities, however, allowed 38 of them to meet Quasem.
Quasem’s daughter-in-law Tahmina Akhter said the jail authorities called  them over phone around 9am and
informed them to meet him at 3:30pm.
Earlier, around 2:45pm, the executive order to carry out the death sentence of Mir Quasem Ali reached the jail, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said.
In the order, the home ministry directed the jail authorities to take necessary measures for the hanging.
Meanwhile, the authorities concerned beefed up security in and around the jail centring the execution of the Jamaat leader. Apart from RAB and police personnel, members of different intelligence agencies were deployed in the area.
Police and RAB men were seen searching people with metal detectors and vehicles with mirror directors.   They were seen having tough times as hundreds of people, including journalists, were waiting outside the jail gate for the final words about the execution from the jail authorities.
After Quasem’s refusal to seek presidential clemency on Friday morning, the superintendent of Kashimpur Central Jail-2, Proshanta Kumar Banik, told The Independent that they completed all the preparation to execute Mir Quasem. They are now waiting only for the green signal from the home ministry.  
After Quasem’s decision, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam had said that there was no legal bar to execute the Jamaat leader as declined to seek presidential clemency.
Earlier on August 31, Mir Quasem told his family members that he will take his decision whether to submit a mercy petition to the president or not only after the return of his son Barrister Ahmed Bin Quasem.
On August 30 this year, Mir Quasem lost his final legal battle to avoid  execution, as the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court dismissed his review petition filed against the death sentence awarded to him for committing crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation in 1971.
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 (ICT-2), in a verdict on November 2, 2014, had sentenced to death Mir Quasem, who had been the Al-Badr chief in the port city of Chittagong in 1971.
Among the 14 charges brought against him for war crimes, the tribunal awarded him death penalty on two charges, sentenced a total of 72-year imprisonment on eight others and acquitted him from four other charges.
On November 30, 2014, Mir Quasem filed an appeal with the SC, challenging the death penalty. On March 8 this year, the Appellate Division upheld the tribunal verdict on seven charges, with death sentence on one charge and various jail terms for six more, and acquitted him of three charges.
The Appellate Division upheld the death sentence on charge number 11 — abducting, torturing and killing six people, including juvenile freedom fighter Jasim Uddin Ahmed, after keeping them in confinement from the day of Eid-ul-Fitr in 1971 to November 28, 1971, and later throwing their bodies into the Karnaphuli river. The Jamaat leader was arrested on June 17, 2012.