Former Al-Badr commander Mujahid to hang

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed will be "hanged by the neck" for unleashing his ruthless Al-Badr militia on unarmed intellectuals including a top journalist to snuff out the dream of Bangladesh four decades ago.

The second war crimes tribunal of Bangladesh on Wednesday passed the death sentence on Mujahid for mass murders the 66-year-old planned and executed during the 1971 Liberation War.

The presiding ICT-2 judge — Justice Obaidul Hassan — described Mujahid as an “atrocious” Al-Badr commander who conspired, abducted, tortured and murdered.

He started speaking at 11:05am, giving the background to the verdict and began reading out the meat of the verdict and sentences at 12:25pm in a courtroom packed with lawyers, journalists and observers.

Judge Shahinur Islam had begun reading out the 37-page summary of the 209-page judgement in presence of Mujahid.

The top defence lawyer said they would appeal. “The tribunal has failed to evaluate the evidence,” Abdur Razzaq said.

Of the seven charges  against the Jamaat Secretary General, the tribunal found him guilty of five.

Mujahid was found “guilty of extermination of intellectuals” and involvement in the murder and torture of Hindus, for which he was given death sentence.

He got death for the first charge – abduction and murder of journalist Sirajuddin Hossain — which was “merged” with murder of intellectuals and the judgement did not give a separate sentence for the journalist’s abduction and murder.

The tribunal said Mujahid would go to the gallows for the seventh charge – murder and torture of Hindus – proven beyond reasonable doubt.

He got life for his role in the torture and murder (charge 5) of composer Altaf Mahmud, well-known freedom fighters including Shafi Imam Rumi, Badiul Alam, Magfar Ahmed Chowdhury Azad, Abdul Halim Chowdhury Jewel and Zahir Uddin Jalal (who managed to flee and gave testimony against both Mujahid and Jamaat’s reigning chief Motiur Rahman Nizami).

As regards charges of genocide (charge 2) and abduction and torture in another instance (charge 4), the tribunal said that the prosecution had utterly failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.

For the third charge – another abduction and torture – he was given five years in jail.

“All the sentences will naturally merge into a single sentence of death,” the judge said.

“This is a gross injustice,” Mujahid said standing up in the dock after the sentencing. “It has been given because of my Islamic movement,” said the man who once denied the existence of war criminals in Bangladesh and said there were no anti-independence elements either.

As policemen were taking him away, Mujahid said, “The Islamic movement will continue.”

The prosecutors got what they wanted.

“The mass murder of our intellectuals was an unforgettable element of our Liberation War. This verdict of death sentence for Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid has finally provided justice for those mass murders,” said MK Rahman, prosecution coordinator and Additional Attorney General.

“The pain in our heart for the loss of great souls like journalist Sirajuddin or martyr Rumi has been there for long despite us getting independence," Rahman said. "Finally we can breathe easy.”

‘Execute fast’

Freedom fighters waiting outside the tribunal greeted the news with cheers. “We’ll be happy only when the hanging is carried out,” said freedom fighter Zahir Uddin Jalal, better known as Bichchhu Jalal.

“We are satisfied,” said Shaheen Reza Nur, son of Sirajuddin, Executive Editor of the then top Bangla newspaper Ittefaq.

The defence lawyers, however, echoed their statements they had made on previous occasions.

“With due respect to the tribunal, this is a wrong verdict,” said chief defence counsel Abdur Razzaq. “They have failed to evaluate the customary law in this regard.”

“We will naturally appeal against this judgement.”

But all three judges of the tribunal were convinced and unanimous.

“The charges have been proved beyond doubt,” Justice Obaidul Hassan, the chief of the panel, said in a courtroom crowded with journalists, lawyers, observers and families of the victims of 1971 war crimes and the accused.

The court found Mujahid, in his mid-20s in 1971, guilty of genocide, murder, abduction, torture, persecution and “extermination of intellectuals”.

Mujahid took over as head of the notorious Al-Badr militia in Oct 1971 from the founding chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, who is also being tried on similar charges. The two served as Cabinet ministers in the 2001-6 BNP-led coalition government.

Flagging fortunes

It has been barely seven years that Mujahid left his job as Bangladesh's Minister for Social Welfare, when he flew the national flag on the bonnet of his car.

Wednesday's judgement establishes, legally at last, that he abducted, tortured and killed those who fought for that flag.

His party called a daylong general strike to protest the announcement of the verdict.

Another dawn-to-dusk strike was announced for Thursday to protest the judgement, making it four strike calls in as many days, though largely ignored by the public.

‘Only death will do’

Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah took reading the judgement from Judge Shahinur Islam and went through the adjudication of charges leaving the final part for Justice Hassan.

The palpable tension in the courtroom took a decisive turn — for the better for some, for the worse for others — during Justice Miah’s reading of the judgement.

This was the first time that the murder of the intellectuals would be adjudicated at the tribunal.

Lawyers on both sides of the aisle as well as observers, victims’ families and journalists craned their necks apprehensively as Mujahid got five years for one charge and life for his involvement in the murder and torture of the urban guerrillas — the Crack Platoon made famous by Rumi’s mother Jahanara Imam’s ‘Ekatturer Dinguli’.

For the last two charges Justice Hassan said in an admonishing tone that the tribunal was of the “unanimous view that there would be failure of justice in case ‘capital punishment’ is not awarded for the crimes, as listed in charge nos. 6 and 7”.

He said they were among such grave crimes “which tremble the collective conscience of mankind”.

The verdict came after the court sifted through the testimonies of 18 witnesses and months of arguments. The hearing ended on June 5.

The judgement came hot on the heels of a 90-year jail sentence for Jamaat ideologue Ghulam Azam by another tribunal.

Cheers and tears of joy

Ruling Awami League expressed ‘satisfaction’ over the death sentence.

“The verdict is appropriate,” CPB President Mujahidul Islam Selim said. “It reflects the people’s expectations.”

Workers Party chief Rashed Khan Menon also echoed Selim.

For many including these two, the death sentence for the former technocrat minister was a welcome relief from ‘bad news’ of Azam sentencing. Many were left crying tears of joy.

Mujahid’s home district, Faridpur, was ‘happy’ with the verdict but those in his defence said justice had not been served.

At Shahbagh, the Ganajagaran Mancha faithful, demanding maximum penalty for convicted war criminals, shouted their hearts out.

“We got the verdict that we’ve been waiting for 42 years,” said the Mancha spokesman Imran H Sarkar.

He said they would be on the streets until Ghulam Azam was given maximum penalty.

But a grim mood settled over Jamaat adherents who reacted with rage and fought pitched battles with police.

Reports of violence unleashed by the party and its student front came in from different parts of the country.

Over the past several months, Jamaat has let loose violent street mob to sabotage the trial of their leaders particularly in their strongholds and deadly violence has left over 100 people dead.

The contrasting reaction to the verdict, in the heavily-guarded courthouse and across Bangladesh, is a testament to the bitter divisions sown by the anti-liberation elements that thrived after independence architect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed and the secular Constitution trampled in 1975.

Thirty-nine years after independence, on June 29, 2010, Mujahid was arrested on charges of defying court orders and was shown arrested in the war crimes case on Aug 2, 2010.

Later, charges against him were taken into cognisance by the ICT-1 on Jan 26 before the case was transferred to ICT-2 set up to judge brutalities during the nine-month struggle for independence.

Mujahid was indicted on June 21 last year for allegedly committing crimes against humanity including murder, genocide, arson and loot.

Over a year

His formal trial began on July 19, 2012.

The prosecution began its closing arguments on May 7 and concluded it primarily on May 16 and the defence began its closing arguments on May 22 and concluded on June 4.

The International Crimes Tribunals have delivered five verdicts in the past – all of whom were Jamaat leaders or top activists. Previous verdicts observed Jamaat-e-Islami was involved in the war crimes as an organisation as well.

In its first verdict, absconding Abul Kalam Azad, aka Bachchu Razakar, a former Jamaat member and Mujahid’s partner in crime, was sentenced to death.

Then, Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla was awarded life imprisonment. The third verdict ended in death penalty for Jamaat number two Delwar Hossain Sayedee.

The fourth also pronounced death by hanging for Assistant Secretary General Mohammad Kamaruzzaman on May 9. Ghulam Azam’s was the most significant in that he attempted to shove Bangladesh back into Pakistan after the war.

From sworn enemy to minister

Born on Jan 2, 1948 at Khabaspur in Faridpur, Mujahid joined Jamaat-e-Islami’s erstwhile student organisation Islami Chhatra Shangha (ICS) while pursuing higher secondary studies at Government Rajendra College in Faridpur. He became the organisation’s President in the district in 1968.

According to prosecution, Mujahid was made the Dhaka district President of Chhatra Sangha in January 1971. He became the organisation’s ‘East Pakistan’ unit Secretary and soon its provincial President after the war broke out.

Mujahid became the President of Al-Badr, a force comprised of ICS activists, in October in 1971.

Al-Badr carried out missions like mass murder, genocide, kidnapping and looting under his leadership across the country, including in his home district Faridpur and the capital Dhaka.

He refused to surrender with his force even after Pakistan military laid down their arms on Dec 16, 1971.

Mujahid joined Jamaat-e-Islami after the War and became a member of its central council in 1982. Before rising to the position of Secretary General in 2000, he had served as Assistant Secretary General for sometime.

Having never won a parliamentary election, he was put at the helm of the Ministry of Social Welfare by Khaleda Zia in 2001 on technocrat quota.

He also heads the board of directors of party mouthpiece Daily Sangram. In 2010, Mujahid claimed Jamaat’s opposition to independence was a political decision and that its leaders were never part of crimes against humanity.

For many, including the son of the slain journalist Sirajuddin Hossain, the judgement gave them an occasion to reflect.

“The verdict served justice for the intellectuals and freedom fighters killed at the hands of Mujahid,” Shahin Reza Nur told bdnews24.com. “It is also a slap on the faces of the propagandists like Mujahid who claimed nothing had happened during 1971.”

But Mujahid's son Ali Ahsan Mabrur was obviously upset, alleging the verdict was a "travesty of justice based on impressions and not on evidence".

(Tanim Ahmed reported and led a team of reporters in the courtroom and outside that included Suliman Niloy, Golam Mujtaba Dhrubo and Quazi Shahreen Haq, Others who contributed to research, writing and editing were Jahidul Kabir, Zoglul Kamal, Tanjir Rahman)