Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
The Kashimpur jail authorities have taken all preparations to execute the death sentence of war criminal Mir Quasem Ali in the next week, jail sources said.
A five-member execution panel led by Din Islam has been formed to execute Mir Quasem Ali. Shajahan, Shahin and two others will help Din Islam to execute capital punishment, they said.
The execution panel has already completed their rehearsal on Wednesday and the rope for hanging Mir Quasem has been brought from Manila, they further said.
Meanwhile, Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier Genereral Syed Iftekhar Uddin visited the Kashimpur Jail and gave necessary instructions for execution of the death-row convict Mir Quasem.
The security measures have already been tightened in the jail area and Gazipur SP Harun Ar Rashid visited the jail on Wednesday.
The verdict copy was sent to Kashimpur Jail on Tuesday night and the jail authorities read out the copy to Mir Quasem Ali on Wednesday morning, said Kashimpur-2 Jail Super Prasanta Kumar Banik.
Some family members have already visited the condemned Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem at the jail, he said.
Kashimpur jailer Md Nasir Uddin said that the jail authorities always ready to execute the death sentence and waiting for necessary instruction.
The family members will also get another chance to meet Quasem Ali after the final decision on clemency plea, he said. Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier Genereral Syed Iftekhar Uddin said “Mir Quasem will be given reasonable time but that is not more than seven days for a mercy petition.” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said, “The President can spare the life of any death-row convict as per the constitution, but he did not use the special powers in two war crimes cases where such petitions were made. The other three did not apply for his pardon.”
“There is no bar to starting the process of his execution now,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said after the Appellate Division rejected the petition to review Mir Quasem’s sentence on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, a five-member Appellate Division panel in its short judgement dismissed the review plea of the 64-year-old death row convict, leaving him with one option to plead for Presidential clemency as his last ditch effort to save his neck. Jamaat-e-Islami’s assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Molla was the first to be hanged for war crimes on December 12 in 2013.
Another assistant secretary general of the party Mohammad Kamaruzzaman was executed on April 11, 2015.
The jail authorities executed the death sentences of Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and BNP Standing Committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury on November 21 last year.
Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was the last to hang on May 11 this year.
