Mir Quasem Ali, the moneyman of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, has been hanged for his crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.He was hanged at Kashimpur Central Jail-2 in Gazipur after he refused to seek Presidential mercy.The executive order for execution reached prison authorities around 4:45pm, Nashir Ahmed, an official of the jail told media. Quasem Ali, 64, an infamous Al-Badr leader of Chittagong, was executed at 10.30pm, according to private TV channel Ekattor.A team of hangmen, led by Shahjahan, executed the Jamaat leader in presence of officials concerned.Before the execution, a total of 38 members of the Quasem’s family, including his wife, met him briefly in jail. They entered the jail premises around 3:40pm and came out at about 6.35pm, but left without speaking to the media.Security in and around Kashimpur Central Jail has been beefed up ahead of the execution.Thousands of extra police and border guards were also deployed in Dhaka and other major cities to tighten security.Quasem is the fifth leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami and sixth top war criminals to have been executed since the government of Sheikh Hasina set up the war crimes tribunal.According to the government, Quasem spent a large amount of money to appoint US-based lobbyists to make the war crimes trials controversial.Last week, the Supreme Court rejected Quasem’s final plea against a death sentence handed down to him by a war crimes tribunal.The war crimes tribunal sentenced Quasem to death on November 3, 2014 on two charges including killing seven people after abduction in Chittagong. He was also awarded a total of 72-year imprisonment on eight other proven charges of abduction, conspiracy and planning.Later, the Appellate Division upheld the death sentence on March 9. Quasem Ali will be buried at his village home in Manikganj.
