‘Devils’, screams Mir Quasem

The man who unleashed a reign of terror in Chittagong against Bangladesh’s Liberation struggle sat unruffled when his verdict was being read out at the International Crimes Tribunal on Sunday.

Senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali, believed to be one of the party’s top financiers, sported a light blue shirt under a beige coat. When he took the stand at 10:43am, he sat cross-legged on the chair placed on it.

The chairman of ICT-2, Justice Obaildul Hassan, followed by Justices Mohammad Mujibur Rahman Miah and Md Shahinur Islam entered a few minutes later.

Charged on 14 counts for abduction, confinement, torture and murder – he was seen shifting his legs from time to time but soon settled into a comfortable posture while the judge continued reading the 11-page summary of his 351-page verdict.

But Quasem, who was tapping his finger on his thigh, turned grave as the judges read on.

“…devils… devils…,” he screamed, as soon as they sentenced him to hang until death on two counts of murder during the Liberation War.

“False events … false witnesses … black law … hatched-up verdict. The truth with prevail … soon .. soon … !” he thundered.

The judges also awarded him a 72-year sentence for the other charges.

A director of Islami Bank, he is also chairman of the pro-Jamaat Diganta Media Corporation, as well as the founder of Ibn Sina Trust and director of the Rabita al-Alam al-Islami, non-government organisation.

In 1971, he headed the vigilante militia group Al-Badr in Chittagong as head of Jamaat’s student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha in the port city.

Earlier, a prison van from the Dhaka Central Jail had brought Quasem to the special tribunal the High Court bulding at 9:17am. He was kept in the court’s lockup before led into the courtroom.

After the verdict, his lawyer Mizanur Rahman, joined by son Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, said the defence will file an appeal.

“We don’t believe it was the right verdict, the prosecution has failed to provide documents to prove his presence in Chittagong when the said crimes were committed.”

Mir Quasem was actually in Dhaka, the lawyer claimed.

Quasem, who studied Physics at the Chittagong Government College before the war, discontinued studies and went into hiding after Bangladesh was born.

He joined Jamaat in 1980 and became its ‘Sura’ or executive council member in 1985.

He became the founding President of the Islami Chhatra Shibir, a rechristened Chhatra Sangha, on Feb 6, 1977.