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Bangladesh on high alert after execution of opposition figures

Monday, 23 November 2015 9:32 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 23 November 2015 9:33 AM ]

Bangladeshi police officers stand guard in Dhaka’s central jail, where Nationalist Party leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid were executed, November 22, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Bangladesh is on high alert following the execution of two opposition leaders for war crimes allegedly perpetrated during the South Asian country’s independence war more than four decades ago.

On Monday, paramilitary border guards and thousands of other security forces patrolled the capital, Dhaka, and other cities as part of measures to avert violence in the wake of a nationwide strike called by political party Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

Officials doubt that many people would adhere to the call to strike. They are instead worried about the murder of four secular bloggers, a publisher, an Italian aid worker and a Japanese agriculture researcher in attacks purportedly carried out by Takfiri militants.

Senior jail superintendent Mohammad Jahangir Kabir said Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, and the secretary general of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, were hanged at Dhaka Central Jail in Dhaka at 12:55 a.m. local time on Sunday (1855 GMT Saturday).

A picture taken early on November 22, 2015 near Dhaka’s central jail shows an ambulance carrying the dead bodies of Nationalist Party leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, and secretary general of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid. (Photo by AFP)

Security forces escorted ambulances carrying the men’s bodies to their hometowns only a few hours after the hangings.

Leading Bangladeshi newspapers and television networks hailed the executions, with Samakal and Prothom Alo newspapers publishing reports in support of the trials and capital punishments.

Unidentified assailants, though, opened fire at the car carrying four journalists for the privately-owned Mohona television network in Chittagong district as they were returning from Chowdhury’s funeral. A reporter sustained injuries and was rushed to hospital, while three others escaped unhurt.

The son (L) and wife (R) of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury leave after meeting with him early on November 22, 2015 at Dhaka’s central jail, Bangladesh, where he was later executed. (Photo by AFP)

Mujahid, 67, was convicted on charge of being the mastermind of the killing of intellectuals, including teachers and journalists, as well as alleged torture and abduction during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan. Chowdhury had been found guilty on charges of torture, rape and genocide.

Bangladesh’s Supreme Court upheld the men’s death sentences on November 18, and President Mohammad Abdul Hamid dismissed a clemency appeal three days later.

Both Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami have described the legal proceedings as flawed and politically-motivated.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement released late on Sunday, said Islamabad “is deeply disturbed” by the executions.

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