Dalim Hotel survivors call for confiscation of Quasem's assets

Survivors of Mir Quasem Ali's brutalities at Dalim Hotel have expressed satisfaction at his execution and have called for his assets to be impounded and used for the benefit of liberation warriors.

It was at this Hotel Dalim, known as the "The Death Factory", that Mir Quasem tortured and killed the young freedom fighter Jashim and six others in 1971.

Quasem paid with his life for his crimes when he was hanged in Kashimpur prison in Gazipur at 10pm on Saturday.

Expressing their instant reaction, some of the survivors said they felt relieved and felt a burden had been lifted from them.

One of them demanded that Quasem's assets be confiscated and used for the benefit of liberation warriors.

Liberation War commander Md Ilias had been whisked away to the notorious Hotel Dalim at Old Telegraph Office Road in 1971.

"A load of 12 thousand tonnes has been lifted from off the nation. The nation has been wiped clean of a blemish," he said while expressing his reaction to the execution of the war criminal.

"We who lost our dear ones, we are relieved, we are very happy", he said.

The moans and screams of the tortured detainees was a regular affair at Hotel Dalim, Ilias remembers.

He said that the detainees were subjected to inhuman torture.

"He led the torture at Dalim", he said of Mir Quasem.

Freedom fighter Sayed Md Emran said, "As one of those who were tortured at his hands, I am relieved that the nation has been freed of a blemish".

"I was kept blindfolded in a room on the second floor of the hotel. I was regularly subjected to physical torture. He led the torture," Emran remembers.

Hazari Lane resident Mridul Dey had testified against Quasem at the tribunal in connection with the detention and murder of Tuntun Sen and Ranjit Das, who hail from the same area.

He said that the souls of all those who had been killed would finally find peace and their family members would breathe a sigh of relief at the war criminal’s execution.

He believes that the punishment will serve as a deterrent against anyone who unleashes such gruesome violence.