Fears of unrest as Bangladesh hangs opposition leaders for war crimes

Dhaka // Bangladesh stepped up security across the country amid fears of unrest after two top opposition leaders were hanged early Sunday for war crimes committed during the independence conflict with Pakistan. A reporter was shot and wounded after covering the funeral of one of the men, though it was not clear who was responsible.

Thousands of extra police and border guards were deployed in Dhaka and other major cities and towns on Sunday, the eve of a general strike called to protest against the executions of opposition leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a former legislator from former premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Mujahid, 67, of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, and Chowdhury, 66, were hanged at 12.55am at Dhaka central jail after president Abdul Hamid rejected their appeals late on Saturday for clemency.

Security was strengthened near the jail and elsewhere. A few hours after the execution, a security detail escorted ambulances carrying the men’s bodies to their ancestral homes where their families were to perform burial rituals.

Rajib Sen, a reporter for the Mohona TV station, was on his way back from Chowdhury’s funeral in Chittagong district when his car was sprayed with bullets, his employer said. Three other journalists in the car escaped unhurt, and Sen was rushed to a hospital in Chittagong.

It was not immediately clear who attacked the car or why.

Bangladesh was bracing for upheaval ahead of the executions, with supporters of the two opposition leaders threatening violence if they were hanged.

Supporters of the ruling Awami League meanwhile greeted their executions by holding street parties and doling out sweets to children.

The country has been roiled by violence for much of the last three years since a domestic tribunal began delivering its verdicts on opposition figures accused of orchestrating massacres during the 1971 war.

A total of 18 people have been convicted but only two had been sent to the gallows before Mujahid and Chowdhury were hanged.

While the other three were members of Jamaat-e-Islami, Chowdhury was a senior figure in the main opposition BNP.

Although international rights groups have criticised the trials as unfair, the government says they are vital for Bangladesh to confront its traumatic birth.

Despite having long been accused of leading massacres of pro-independence figures and minorities, both Chowdhury and Mujahid held cabinet posts a little over a decade ago when the BNP was in power.

Relatives of war victims celebrated the hangings.

“I’ve waited for this day for a long 44 years,” said Shawan Mahmud, daughter of top musician Altaf Mahmud, who was killed by the notorious Al Badr militia that Mujahid was convicted of leading.

“Now justice has finally been delivered,” she said.

But both men’s families said they maintained their innocence to the end, denying they sought clemency in what would have amounted to an admission of guilt.

* Agencies