Gallows are ready for Jamaat chief Nizami

After a final family visit, there are clear indications that Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami is going to be hanged shortly for his 1971 Liberation War crimes.

The relatives left Dhaka Central Jail at 9:30pm on Tuesday after the 1:45-hour-long meeting.

Dhaka district’s Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Salah Uddin and Civil Surgeon Abdul Malek Mridha entered the jail around 10pm. Their presence is essential for any execution.

Several prisons officials said on condition of anonymity that the final preparations to ready the scaffold were under way.

Though no exact schedule for the hanging has been announced, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal’s remarks gave enough indication that it will be done on Tuesday night.

Police have closed all the shops and businesses and blocked traffic in front of the prison in Old Dhaka’s Nazimuddin Road, leading to a limited movement of people in the area.

The entire area has been thrown under a security blanket. Police and RAB have formed security barriers.

Besides them, plainclothesmen of different agencies have been deployed.

Home Minister Kamal, speaking to bdnews24.com at 8:10pm, said the executive order to carry out the death sentence has been sent to the prison authorities as Nizami has not sought mercy.

The frenetic activities of the law-enforcers and journalists outside the jail had gone a few notches up when Dhaka Central Jail Senior Superintendent Jahangir Kabir went inside in the afternoon.

Later, Nizami’s family was told to go to the prison. Families of death-row convicts usually get to meet them hours before their sentence is carried out.

At least 24 members of Jamaat-e-Islami chief Nizami’s family, including his wife, two sons and their wives, went to the jail in the evening after prison officials asked them to meet him for the last time.

The preparations to carry out his execution started after the Supreme Court on Monday published the final verdict that rejected Nizami’s petition to review his death sentence.

After losing the last legal battle, the war criminal was left with the only option to save his neck – seeking presidential clemency by admitting his guilt.

On Tuesday noon, the home minister had said the death sentence would be carried out any time in accordance with the laws if Nizami does not seek mercy.

In the meantime, Additional Inspector General of Prisons Col Iqbal Hasan and Deputy IG of Prisons Golam Haider had gone to the home ministry.

After they returned to the Department of Prisons, Jahangir Kabir, carrying a bag, was seen entering the office around 4pm. An hour later, he went to Dhaka Central Jail.

A hangman named Tanvir Hasan Raju, brought from Gazipur’s Kashimpur prison, entered the prison after him.

Jail officials said Kabir had carried along the executive order to hang Nizami from the home ministry.

Then the street in front of the jail was barricaded and closed to traffic.

Some 15 minutes later, Nizami’s extended family drove in three vehicles to the prison gate and went in a little later.

By then, law-enforcers had thrown 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 made them out of bounds.

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.

The people that have thronged the place include mediapersons, general people, pro-Liberation War activists and freedom fighters.

Nizami’s family members did not spoke to the journalists.

Prison authorities on Monday said they had read out the final Supreme Court verdict to the Jamaat chief.

After the Appellate Division 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, a vigilante militia that assisted the Pakistan Army during Bangladesh’s Liberation War, was brought to the Dhaka jail from there on Sunday night.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Nizami to death on Oct 29, 2014, for the atrocities, including rape, murder and killings of intellectuals, he had committed as the Al-Badr commander.

The top appeals court on Jan 6 upheld the maximum penalty for the Jamaat chief, after hearing his appeal.

The same bench had dismissed Nizami’s review petition last week.

The full review verdict was released on Monday afternoon, after which the prison authorities read it out to Nizami to kick off the preparations for his execution.