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Published : 01 Oct 2015, 12:28 AM
Now the top appeals court in the verdict against Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid says nothing but his death sentence can serve justice.
“It will be a mockery of justice to permit the accused to escape the extreme penalty of law when faced with such evidence and such cruel acts,” the Appellate Division said in the verdict of Mujahid’s appeal against the death sentence.
The four-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha issued the verdict upholding the death sentence handed down by the ICT on June 16.
The full version of the verdict was published on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court has sent the 191-page verdict to the ICT.
The full verdict against BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury was also published on Wednesday. His death sentence has been upheld too.
In the full verdict against Mujahid, the court said the Jamaat leader wanted to continue their fight against Bangladesh even after Pakistan decided to end occupation.
“The appellant (Mujahid) was under obligation to prevent the commission of the offence and did not do so rather he, along with some other members of his [Al Badr] Bahini, planned, participated and instigated genocide and lastly rushed to the Cantonment and met the high Pak Army officials, on the morning of 16th December, 1971 and demanded arms which were to be handed over by Pak Army, for fighting against freedom fighters when Pak Army had already decided to surrender,” the verdict read.
Jamaat formed ‘Razakar’ force to collaborate with the Pakistani army during the Liberation war, while its student front Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS) formed Al Badr.
Mujahid was the chief of Chhatra Sangha’s Dhaka district unit in 1971. After the war had begun, he was made the secretary of the ‘East Pakistan’ unit in July and its president afterwards.
Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was the chief of Al Badr until September. Mujahid took the charge of the force in October.
Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid (File Photo)
The Appellate Division verdict said the evidence conclusively proved that Mujahid was the leader of Al-Badr Bahini in 1971.
“Before starting of the War of Independence, ICS took their stand against verdict of the people reflected in the general election held in 1970 inasmuch as the people of Bangladesh did not allow them to represent them,” it said.
“Thereafter, during the War of Independence, the appellant and other members of ICS, taking support of Pak Army formed Al-Badr Bahini and started fighting against mass people at large and freedom fighters in particular,” it added.
In that general election in 1970, Awami League won 160 of the 300 seats in the National Assembly of Pakistan.
The party won 288 of the 300 seats in the Provincial Assembly of the erstwhile East Pakistan.
About the Al Badr force, the court also said: “We have no hesitation to hold that the ruthless Al-Badr Bahini, under the leadership of the appellant (Mujahid) and being instigated, suggested, aided, provoked and incited by him, had kidnapped and killed the intellectuals just before the victory.”
“It was cold-blooded savagery.
“Such barbaric, gruesome and brutal crime which the Badr Bahini committed at the instigation of the appellant is comparable with Hitler’s gas chamber genocide,” it observed.
“Definitely he was a war criminal.
“If we look into the manner in which the crime was committed, the weapon used, the brutality of the crime, number of persons killed, the helplessness of the victims, we cannot come to any other conclusion except the one the Tribunal arrived at.”
“Motive of killings of intellectuals was cold-blooded with a deliberate design in order to cripple the future of this new born country,” the court observed.
“It is the duty of the Court to award proper sentence having regard to the nature of the offence and depending upon the degree of criminality, the manner in which it was committed and all attended circumstances,” it added.
After independence, Mujahid joined Jamaat and became a member of its central committee in 1982.
He took charge as an assistant secretary general in 1989 and then the secretary general in 2000.
Despite his failure to be elected in any election, he became the social welfare minister when BNP took Jamaat to the coalition government in its last tenure.
