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2nd LD Writethru: Bangladesh executes Islamist party leader Mir Quasem Ali for war crimes

Xinhua, September 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Bangladesh on Saturday executed another top leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Mir Quasem Ali, for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.

"Ali has been hanged to death (Saturday) at 10:30 p.m. (local time)," Proshanto Kumar Banik, superintendent of Kashimpur Central Jail on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka told journalists at scene.

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.

Ali, well known as a key financier of Jamaat, was the sixth and one of the most influential opposition figures who have been tried in two war crimes tribunals which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Bangladesh Awami League-led government formed in 2010 to bring perpetrators to book.

On Saturday evening, family members walked into the Kashimpur jail to meet him for one last time as authorities completed preparations to hang the war criminal.

Security has been beefed up in and around the jail, where 64-year-old Ali was kept.

As part of tightened security measures, paramilitary troops have been deployed in the capital to thwart any untoward incident in the wake of the execution.

Bangladesh's apex court on Aug. 30 rejected Ali's final legal appeal against the death sentence given to him by a special tribunal in March 2014.

Ali was convicted of abduction, torture and mass murder as one of the key leader of a pro-Pakistan militia.

Four Jamaat-e-Islami party leaders -- Motiur Rahman Nizami, Abdul Quader Molla, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid -- have already been executed for 1971 war crimes.

Apart from them, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salaudin Quader Chowdhury was executed on Nov. 22 last year.

Both BNP and Jamaat have described the court as a government "show trial," saying it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations. Endit