Both US Secretary of State John Kerry and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had requested her to stop the execution of Quader Molla, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader convicted of crimes against humanity in 1971, Hasina revealed to the press on Saturday.
“Who in Bangladesh has the guts to go ahead with the hanging after that?”
“Only Bangabandhu’s daughter (has that).”
On the day of Quader Molla’s execution, John Kerry and Ban Ki-Moon had called Hasina within hours of each other. The specifics of those calls had not been made public before.
“Don’t question me. I will do what I have to do,” Hasina said, in reply to a question about speeding up the trial of war criminals.