Martyr widow feels unburdened at Nizami hanging after 45-year wait

The wife of martyred Dr AFM Alim Choudhury is happy at the hanging of dreaded war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.

Shaymoli Nasrin Choudhury said on Tuesday she, and many like her, had been carrying a burden of grief but the news of Nizami’s hanging had lightened the weight.

“Everyone from the intellectual fraternity will feel unburdened,” she said.

Speaking to bdnews24.com, she said she had waited for this day for the past 45 years.

Shaymoli fumed against Nizami being made a minister in the Khaleda Zia government.

The former commander of the notorious Al-Badr, a vigilante militia that assisted the Pakistan Army during Bangladesh’s Liberation War, awaited the gallows after deciding not to seek presidential clemency.

The jail authorities on Tuesday asked his relatives to come and see him in prison, a practice for the families of death-row convicts to meet them for one last time before the sentence is carried out.

Prison officials on Monday read out to the Jamaat chief the final Supreme Court verdict rejecting his petition for a review of the death penalty.

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

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

The same bench had dismissed his review petition on May 5.

The full review verdict was released on Monday afternoon.

Freedom fighter Zahir Uddin Jalal, popular as Bichchhu Jalal, is pleased with Nizami’s execution.

He said he remembered 'Shaheed Janani' (Mother of the Martyrs) Jahanara Imam on this occasion.

Speaking to bdnews24.com on Tuesday, Jalal said the souls of the martyrs would find solace by the execution of the verdict.

“Especially, the soul of Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam would find solace. She has sacrificed so much for this case. Her soul will find peace.”

He also demanded that the property of all war criminals including that of Nizami be confiscated.

A principal prosecution witness in the war crime trials, Jalal also said, “(Chhatra) Shibir has made many boys barristers. Bangladesh will never benefit from their talent.”

“They have attacked us with vulgar words inside the court. That language of theirs cannot be the language of the Bengalis. It is the language of Punjab-Baluchistan.

“How do they get the chance to be part of the Bangladesh legal system?” he said, calling on authorities to shut the door on them.

Jalal was a member of Dhaka’s guerrilla group ‘the Crack Platoon’ that had terrorised the Pakistani occupation forces during the war in 1971.

He had fought with Shafi Imam Rumi, the son of Jahanara Imam. Both of them were captured and tortured along with other guerrilla and freedom fighters at the MP Hostel in capital Dhaka’s Nakhalparha.

Jalal had managed to flee, but Nizami during a visit there in Aug 30, 1971 had ordered the murder of several youths including Rumi, for which the Jamaat chief was awarded life imprisonment.