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Published : 10 Apr 2015, 09:15 PM
“The magistrates met him (Kamaruzzaman) today. Steps are being taken based on what they discussed,” Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said around 8:30pm on Friday.
Asked whether the war criminal had made a decision regarding the mercy petition, Kamal skirted a direct answer, only saying, “He’s not getting any more time.”
The junior home minister spoke to reporters while leaving in a hurry a programme at Shilpakala Academy.
Authorities of the Dhaka Central Jail, where Jamaat-e-Islami Senior Assistant Secretary General Kamaruzzaman is currently lodged, have beefed up security in and around the prison since evening.
Chawkbazar Police Station OC Azizul Haque told bdnews24.com they were only following orders from senior officials.
Later around 7:30pm, a rickshaw-van carrying at least eight bamboos and three large cartons went inside the prison.
An ambulance carrying a tarpaulin entered around half an hour later while at least 40 plastic chairs were also taken inside.
A prison official said bamboos and tarpaulin were needed to cover the gallows in order to prevent people of adjacent buildings from watching the process of hanging.
The process was also followed during the execution of Jamaat Assistant Secretary General and war criminal Abdul Quader Molla.
However, Kamaruzzaman’s son Hasan Iqbal said the jail authorities did not contact them until 9:30pm Friday about meeting his father one last time.
“We’ve waited the whole day. We were told that authorities will talk to the lawyers if anything happens. But we haven’t got any news,” he said.
Dhaka district magistrates Mahbub Jamil and Tanveer Ajim earlier in the day had met Kamaruzzaman to ask whether he wanted to seek the presidential mercy.
They stayed for more than an hour inside, but did not speak to journalists waiting outside the jail.
The prison’s Senior Superintendent Forman Ali had also declined comment on their visit.
A jail official told bdnews24.com that the magistrates spoke to the death-row convict for a while.
“They went away after a meeting with top jail officials for over half an hour,” the official said, asking not to be named.
The senior leader of Jamaat, the party that played an active role against Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, was sentenced to death for atrocities during the war.
The Appellate Division upheld the sentence describing his crimes as being “worse than the Nazis”.
Chief Justice SK Sinha-led bench on Apr 6 rejected his plea for a review of the death penalty the top court had handed him earlier.
The state minister for home on Friday afternoon said, “Kamaruzzaman was asked about the mercy petition. He is taking time. He said ‘giving...will give’.”
He said the Jamaat leader would have to decide ‘fast’.
“We’ll make our move following the law, no matter what one says.”
Earlier, during war criminal Molla’s execution, the Appellate Division had said he would be given the chance to seek mercy.
In the verdict rejecting Molla’s review plea, the top appeals court said the jail code stipulating seven to 21 days for mercy would not be applicable here.
If the convict sought clemency, he could not be executed until his appeal was resolved, the court said.
But in Kamaruzzaman’s case, there is ambiguity about how much time he would get to ask for pardon or the time that can be taken to settle his mercy petition, if one filed, since it is not mentioned in the International Crimes Tribunal Act.
The same procedure was followed during Molla’s execution. But the government says the Jamaat leader did not appeal for mercy.
He was hanged on Dec 12, 2013, the very day when his review petition was rejected by the top court.
