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Bangladesh executes opposition leader for role in 1971 war after appeal denied Bangladesh braces for violent protests after hanging of opposition leader
(35 minutes later)
Bangladesh has executed an opposition leader convicted of war crimes hours after the supreme court rejected a last-minute appeal, officials said. The death threatened to spark new violence ahead of national elections next month. Bangladesh is braced for violent protests following the hanging of an opposition politician convicted of war crimes committed during the brutal civil war that led to the south Asian nation's independence more than 40 years ago.
Sheikh Yousuf Harun, chief government administrator in Dhaka, said Abdul Quader Mollah was hanged at 10.01pm (4.01pm GMT). Abdul Quader Mollah, a senior official in the Islamist Jama'at Islami (JI) organisation, is the first defendant to be hanged by a controversial special tribunal set up by the Bangaldeshi government three years ago.
Mollah's Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, immediately called a nationwide general strike for Sunday. Security forces are preparing for violence on Friday and at the weekend. JI officials have called a nationwide strike for Sunday.
Mollah, 65, was found guilty of war crimes during the nation's war of independence against Pakistan in 1971. The government says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed three million people and raped 200,000 women during the nine-month war. Mollah was found guilty by the International criminal tribunal in February of killing a student and a family of 11 and of aiding Pakistani troops in killing 369 other people during the independence war. He was sentenced to life in prison, but the supreme court changed that to a death sentence in September.
He is the first person executed since prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, in 2010 began trying people suspected of crimes during the war. Most of the defendants are opposition members. After a last-minute appeal by lawyers was rejected, the 65-year-old was hanged in a prison in Dhaka, the capital, just after 10pm (4pm GMT) on Thursday.
Mollah's execution had been placed on hold Tuesday night just before he originally was to have been put to death. The supreme court rejected his final appeal on Thursday. The tribunal has been criticised by human rights activists and legal experts as deeply flawed. It has held a series of trials of individuals accused of war crimes committed during 1971 war. Most of the defendants are opposition members, leading to charges that the process is politically motivated.
Jamaat-e-Islami, an ally of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party, had warned of "dire consequences" if he were executed. Senior officials from the ruling Awami League reject the accusation and say the trials are necessary "to exorcise the ghosts of Bangladesh".
The two parties say the trials are an attempt to weaken the opposition and eliminate Islamic parties. Authorities have denied the allegations. "Is it up to the international gold standard? The standard of the Old Bailey? No. But does the tribunal match, indeed exceed, the standards of our usual courts here in Bangladesh? Yes it does," said one.
Security was tight around the jail in Dhaka where he was hanged. Extra police were deployed along with paramilitary guards on the streets of the capital. Hasan Jamil, the eldest son of Mollah, told the Guardian the execution of his father was "a political killing" orchestrated by the government to allow them to declare an emergency when the street violence that the hanging is likely to provoke occurs.
Earlier on Thursday, party activists clashed with police, torched or smashed vehicles and exploded homemade bombs in three other major cities Chittagong, Sylhet and Rajshahi, TV stations reported. Scores of people were injured in the latest violence to hit the south Asian country, which has seen weeks of escalating tension as it struggles to overcome extreme poverty and rancourous politics. "After this injustice no people can stay home. They will organise big demonstration. The government may declare emergency," he said.
Security officials opened fire to disperse opposition activists in eastern Bangladesh, leaving at least three people dead and 15 others wounded, Dhaka's leading Bengali-language newspaper, Prothom Alo, reported. Shantanu Majumder, political analyst, termed the hanging a "big step forward towards the political development of Bangladesh".
The violence broke out in Laxmipur district, 60 miles east of Dhaka, during a nationwide opposition blockade after elite security forces raided and searched the home of an opposition leader, the report said. The hanging comes at a fraught political time with the opposition, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist party, already committed to boycotting elections called for January. Jamaat Islami was effectively banned from participating in the poll earlier this year.
The execution complicates an already critical political situation in Bangladesh, where the opposition has carried out violent protests for weeks demanding an independent caretaker government to oversee the general election set for 5 January. Bangladesh has been partly paralysed by a series of shutdowns and strikes called by the opposition in recent weeks. Hundreds may have been killed in street violence this year and many more injured.
The government has rejected that demand and said a political government headed by Hasina will conduct the election, although the opposition alliance led by former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, plans to boycott the vote. Weeks of blockades and general strikes have left nearly 100 people dead since October. On Thursday JI activists clashed with police, torched or smashed vehicles and exploded homemade bombs around the country, TV stations reported.
Mollah was found guilty by the special tribunal in February of killing a student and a family of 11 and of aiding Pakistani troops in killing 369 other people during the independence war. He was sentenced to life in prison, but the supreme court changed that to a death sentence in September. In eastern Bangladesh, security officials opened fire to disperse opposition activists, leaving at least three people dead and 15 others wounded, Dhaka's leading Bengali-language newspaper, Prothom Alo, reported.
Until it gained independence in 1971, Bangladesh was the eastern wing of Pakistan. Mollah's party campaigned against independence. More such incidents are expected in the run up to January's poll.
Much of the political instability that troubles Bangladesh can be traced back to the 1971 war or its immediate aftermath. More than three million people died, some say, in one of the most violent and bitterly fought conflicts in the region in recent decades.
Forces from Pakistan sought out and shot thousands of intellectuals and political leaders in Dhaka in a bid to crush the movement for an independent Bangladesh. They were assisted by local collaborators, many linked to the JI organisation. Asif Munier, son of a university teacher who was killed in 1971 for supporting independence, said he was pleased with the court's decision to reject Quader Mollah's last-minute appeal.
"Yes, we are happy because justice has been served … It's not about any revenge," Munier said after the supreme court decision.
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