Mir Quasem's wife says family will decide on mercy petition after 'detained son' returns home

Mir Quasem Ali's wife Khandker Ayesha Khatun has said that the family will not make a decision about the Jamaat-e-Islami leader's mercy petition until their son who has been 'detained by police' returns home.

Ayesha went to meet her war criminal husband on Wednesday afternoon at Kashimpur prison in Gazipur along with their two daughters Sumaiya Rabeya and Tahera Tasnim, daughters-in-law Shaheda Tahmida and Tahmina Aktar, nephew Hasan Jamal and four grandchildren.

She spoke to reporters outside the jail around 4pm after spending nearly two hours with Mir Quasem.

"My son Ahmed Bin Quasem, a lawyer, has been picked up by plainclothesmen. We are unable to decide whether we would file the mercy petition or on any other matter," she said.

She did not make any further comment and then left with the other family members on an ambulance.

Prashanta Kumar Banik, Superintendent of Central Jail-2 at Kashimpur, said, "The family spoke to Mir Quasem for nearly two hours."

The family had claimed that Mir Quasem’s son Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem was whisked away late on Aug 9 by men in plainclothes identifying themselves as law-enforcers from his home at Dhaka’s Miprur.

But police, however, said they have no information over detaining him.

Earlier in the morning, prison authorities read out to Mir Quasem the Appellate Division verdict rejecting the war criminal's plea to review his death sentence.

After that, he sought time to decide on whether he would file a petition to seek the president's mercy by repenting for his crimes to dodge the hangman's noose, said Banik.

Losing the last legal battle at the top appeals court on Tuesday has left the pro-Pakistan Al-Badr militia commander with one last option - seeking pardon from the president.

The government will start the process to execute the death sentence if the president rejects the petition or if the Jamaat financier does not seek clemency.

Mir Quasem had heard the news of the Supreme Court dismissing his review petition on a radio in the condemned cell he is currently in.

A prison official said he appeared 'a bit tensed' after the verdict was read out to him.

Police had arrested Jammat's Central Executive Council member Mir Quasem on Jun 17, 2012, in the war crimes case. His trial started on Sep 5 next year.

Since his arrest, Mir Quasem has been kept at Kashimpur jail. He was given a division cell at first, but after the ICT sentenced him to death in November 2014, the Jamaat leader was transferred to the condemned cell.