Bangladesh’s Mohona TV station says one of its reporters was shot and wounded while covering the funeral of one of two opposition leaders executed earlier Sunday.
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As it is being told that, President of Bangladesh turned down the pleas of the leaders to avoid the death penalty, however, it was rejected on Saturday night and was planned to execute these top leaders as sooner as possible.
On Monday, paramilitary border guards and thousands of other security officials were patrolling cities including the capital, Dhaka, in an effort to prevent any violence as the South Asian country’s main Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, called for a nationwide strike.
About two hours after executions, ambulances carrying the bodies left the jail for Mojaheed and Chowdhury’s ancestral homes.
He was accused of responsibility for the killings of a number of pro-independence Bangladeshi leaders and intellectuals.
Responding to the misleading reference by Pakistan to the Agreement of 1974, the High Commissioner was told that the agreement never implied that the masterminds and perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide would continue to enjoy impunity and eschew the course of justice.
State prosecutor Tureen Afroz said Bangladesh’ Constitution empowers the President with the authority to grant clemency to any convict “but we hope the president will not exercise the power”.
Human Rights Watch said the tribunal allowed the prosecution to call 41 witnesses, while Chowdhury’s defense was limited to four witnesses.
Both – the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami party – have dismissed the court as a government “show trial”, saying it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the UN.
Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party said that the trials were politically motivated.
“I’ve waited for this day for a long 44 years”, said Shawan Mahmud, daughter of top musician Altaf Mahmud, who was killed by militia that Mujahid was convicted of leading during the war.
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid is killing those people who believed in ideology of Pakistan and opposed separation of East Pakistan”, he said.
Chowdhury has been an influential politician – he was elected MP six times.
In a statement late Sunday, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the men’s trials had been flawed, and that “Pakistan is deeply disturbed” by the executions.
The political violence has exacerbated tensions in the mainly Muslim country which is also reeling from a string of killings of secular bloggers and the recent murders of two foreigners.
Imran Sarker, for his part, a spokesperson for the Ganajagaran Mancha group (established during Bangladesh’s 2013 Shahbagh protests, which had demanded the death penalty for alleged war criminals), described the executions as “a milestone in Bangladesh’s history”.
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Huq said such men were being punished in the name of war crimes by the present Awami-League-led government for their allegiance to Pakistan.
