Bangladesh yesterday hanged two top opposition leaders for war crimes during the independence conflict with Pakistan and strengthened security nationwide over fears the executions could spark fresh unrest.
Thousands of extra police and border guards were deployed in Dhaka and other major cities and towns on the eve of a general strike called to protest against the executions.
Supporters of the ruling Awami League meanwhile greeted the executions of Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury by holding street parties and doling out sweets to children.
Photo: AFP
Bangladesh has been roiled by violence for much of the last three years since a tribunal began delivering its verdicts on opposition figures accused of orchestrating massacres during the 1971 war.
A total of 18 people have been convicted, but only two had been sent to the gallows before Mujahid and Chowdhury were hanged at Dhaka’s Central Prison shortly before 1am.
While the other three were members of the largest Muslim party, Jamaat-e-Islami, Chowdhury was a senior figure in the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Jamaat, banned from contesting last year’s general election, said the executions were part of a strategy “aimed at eliminating” its leadership.
The BNP also accused Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of presiding over a politically-motivated killing, which was carried out only hours after BNP leader Khaleda Zia returned from a lengthy stay in London.
Some of the tightest security measures were in force in the home towns of the two executed men, whose funerals were held yesterday morning.
“We’ve stepped up security across the country to prevent any violence, including on the roads along which the bodies were taken,” police spokesman Munstashirul Islam said.
Hundreds of police were deployed outside the central city of Faridpur, where Mujahid was buried soon after daybreak. Reinforcements were also sent to Chowdhury’s home town of Raojan in the southeast.
A television journalist suffered minor injuries after being shot in Raojan hours after Chowdhury’s burial, private television Channel 24 said. A local police chief said officers were checking if the incident was connected to the executions.
The 67-year-old Mujahid, Jamaat’s official No. 2, was sentenced for war crimes such as the killing of top intellectuals.
Chowdhury, 66, was convicted of atrocities including genocide during the 1971 war when the then-East Pakistan split from Islamabad. He served six terms as a member of parliament and was one of Zia’s top aides.
Although international rights groups have criticized the trials as unfair, the government says they are vital for Bangladesh to confront its traumatic birth.
Despite having long been accused of leading massacres of pro-independence figures and minorities, both Chowdhury and Mujahid held Cabinet posts a little more than a decade ago when the BNP was in power.
Relatives of war victims celebrated the hangings.
“I’ve waited for this day for a long 44 years,” said Shawan Mahmud, daughter of top musician Altaf Mahmud, who was killed by the notorious Al Badr militia that Mujahid was convicted of leading.
“We had to endure years of pain and shame as these war criminals would taunt us. Now justice has finally been delivered,” she said.
Both men’s families said they maintained their innocence to the end, denying they sought clemency in what would have amounted to an admission of guilt.
“He said they are killing him because they could not beat him in elections,” Chowdhury’s son, Humam Qauder Chowdhury, said after a final meeting with his father.
The BNP and Jamaat claim Hasina is trying to neuter her opponents, having won re-election two years ago in a controversial contest boycotted by rivals.
Thousands of BNP supporters have been arrested in recent months, further hampering its efforts to regain a footing in upcoming municipal elections. Authorities say those arrested have either carried out or plotted firebombings and other attacks.
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