Activists of different political parties and cultural organisations yesterday brought out jubilant processions over upholding the death sentence of Jamaate Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali for his crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s War of Liberation in 1971.
Soon after a five-member Appellate Division bench of the Supreme Court led-by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha delivered the verdict, hundreds of people brought out processions from different parts of the city and started to gather at the central Shahid Minar premises.
Quasem Ali, 63, a member of Jamaat-e-Islami’s central executive council and a top financier of the anti-liberation party, was awarded death penalty by a special tribunal in 2014 for war crimes.
Early last year, the ICT had sentenced him to death for the killing of young freedom fighter Jashim Uddin Ahmed and eight others and to 72 years in prison for acts of abduction and torture. The apex court has upheld the punishment on eight counts, acquitted him of one, and changed the penalty in another.
Welcoming the verdict, Gonojagoron Mancha in Chittagong also brought out procession from Chittagong Press Club premises which concluded at Cheragi Pahar intersection after parading through different city streets.
Later, the Mancha activists held a rally at Cheragi Pahar intersection where they demanded the government to occupy ‘Dalim Hotel’, a torture cell of the Al-Badar leader Mir Quasem and preserve it as a remnant of torturing the Bangalees during the country’s liberation war.
Addressing the rally they said the rule of law has been established in the country by upholding the verdict.
They also demanded quick execution of the verdict to rid the nation of the stigma.
Coordinator of Gonojagoron Mancha in Chittagong Sharif Chowhan said the verdict fulfilled the expectation of the people. Welcoming the verdict, Dr Irshad Kamal, a witness of the cases filed for crimes against humanity, expressed satisfaction over the verdict and said Bangladesh has set an example of justice through the verdict.
Recollecting tortures on him at Dalim Hotel by the Al-Badr leader Mir Quasem, Dr Irshad urged the government to trace out all other war criminals across the country and try them in order to build a new Bangladesh on the basis of core sprit of Liberation War.
Welcoming the verdict, Shahidjaya Begum Mustari Shafi also urged the government to execute the verdicts of all war criminals as soon as possible.
Welcoming the upholding of the verdict, Bangladesh Awami League (AL), Bangladesh Chhatra League and other front organizations also brought out separate processions at different parts of the city.
The AL leaders and activists gathered at Darul Fazal Market party office and held a rally there.
Addressing the rally Chittagong City AL president and former city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury thanked the government as well as the Appellate Division bench of the Supreme Court for fulfilling the nation’s expectation by upholding the death sentence to top war criminal Mir Quasem Ali.
