Quasem transferred to Dhaka jail

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali has been shifted to Dhaka Central Jail from Gazipur’s Kashimpur jail ahead of his war crimes case verdict.

He arrived at Dhaka Central Jail around 2:30pm, said Senior Jail Superintendent Md Farman Ali.

Mir Quasem, charged with crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War, was sent to Dhaka around Friday noon amid tight security, said Senior Jail Superintendent Md Jahangir Kabir in Kashimpur.

He said the Jamaat leader was sent to the capital because his presence in the courtroom during the verdict's delivery was mandatory.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 of Bangladesh on Thursday said it would deliver a verdict on the Jamaat leader on Sunday.

Ali's verdict date was announced barely a day after the head of Al-Badr and Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was sentenced to death by ICT-1.

The party had called nationwide shutdowns for three days - Thursday, Sunday and Monday – in protest.

Mir Quasem Ali is said to have been the third man in the command structure of Al-Badr, Pakistan occupation army’s vigilante militia outfit, during the War of Independence in 1971.

He was indicted on Sept 5 last year on 14 charges including murder, abduction and torture. The trial ended on May 4 this year.

Said to be one of Jamaat’s top financiers, Ali is a director of Islami Bank and chairman of the Diganta Media Corporation, believed to be pro-Jamaat.

He is also the founder of Ibn Sina Trust and director of the non-government organisation - Rabita al-Alam al-Islami.

An executive council member of Jamaat, Ali was arrested on June 17 last year from the office of newspaper Naya Diganta less than two hours after the tribunal issued a warrant for his arrest.

The 14 charges against the Jamaat policymaker include the torture and killing of eight people and concealment of their bodies, besides the torture of 34 others in captivity.

According to the charges, as an once commander of Al-Badr, a ‘killing squad’ formed with members of a Peace Committee and Islami Chhatra Sangha, Ali is accused of playing an important role in the murder, massacre, rape and loot that were rampant in Chittagong during that time.

There are also allegations that he ordered the massacre and murder at the Razakar camps there.

The Al-Badr in Chittagong, under his leadership, had purportedly set up camps for ‘torture and killings’ at Dalim Hotel in Andarkilla, a leather depot at Asadganj, and Salma Manjil at Panchlaish.

He is also accused of preparing a list of the intellectuals murdered towards the end of the Liberation War.

After independence, Mir Quasem fled to Saudi Arabia and returned to Bangladesh only after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most members of his family were killed by a group of army officers on Aug 15, 1975.

Later, when Chhatra Sangha rechristened itself as Islami Chhatra Shibir on Feb 6, 1977, he became its founding President. He was also a member of Jamaat's executive council before he was arrested.