Family in Dhaka jail for final reunion with Nizami

The family have walked into the Dhaka Central Jail to meet Motiur Rahman Nizami for one last time as authorities complete preparations to hang the war criminal.

At least 24 members of the Jamaat-e-Islami chief’s family, including his wife, two sons and their wives, were seen entering the prison a little after they drove in three vehicles at the prison gate around 7:45pm on Tuesday.

Around 20 minutes later, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal confirmed bdnews24.com that an executive order to carry out Nizami’s hanging for 1971 war crimes has been sent to the jail as he had not asked for presidential mercy.

Security had been shored up around the prison on Old Dhaka’s Nazimuddin Road since the afternoon.

The street in front of the jail has also been barricaded and closed to traffic.

Prison authorities on Monday said they had read out the final Supreme Court verdict, rejecting Nizami’s petition for a review of the death penalty, to the Jamaat-e-Islami chief.

The home minister on Tuesday noon said all preparations had been wrapped up to carry out the execution. The government will go ahead with it ‘any time’ if Nizami does not beg presidential pardon, he said.

Later in the afternoon, his lawyer Motiur Rahman Akanda told bdnews24.com, “Jail authorities have asked (the family) to go there to meet (him). They are on their way.”

The last resort for Nizami to save his neck is now to seek the president’s mercy after admitting his guilt.

After the Supreme Court rejected his review plea on May 5, Nizmai’s family had met him at Gazipur’s Kashimpur prison the following day.

The former commander of the notorious Al-Badr militia was brought to the Dhaka jail from there on Sunday night.

The family has now been called to meet him for the last time only three days later. Families of death-row convicts usually get to meet them hours before their sentence is carried out.

Law-enforcers threw up barricades on the streets in front of Chawkbazar’s Haji Salim Tower, Makur Shah Mazar on the Dhaka jail’s north gate and Moulvibazar intersection, and closed them to traffic.

DMP Lalbagh division’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Sanjit Kumar Roy told bdnews24.com the measures were taken to ensure safety of the huge crowd at the jail gate.

Deployed alongside police personnel in and around the prison were RAB officials and plainclothesmen of different agencies.

Nizami was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal on Oct 29, 2014 for the atrocities he had committed as the commander of Al-Badr, a vigilante militia that assisted the Pakistan Army during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.

Bangladesh’s highest court of appeals, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, on Jan 6 upheld the maximum penalty for the Jamaat chief, after hearing his appeal.

His death warrant was issued by the tribunal after the Supreme Court published the full copy of its verdict on Mar 16.

The same bench dismissed his review petition on May 5.

The full review verdict was released on Monday afternoon, after which the prison authorities read it out to Nizami.