War criminal Kamaruzzaman’s health checked before execution

The health check-up of war crimes convict Mohammad Kamaruzzaman has been done ahead of his imminent execution.

An Islamic cleric was also there to perform last rites before hanging him for his Liberation War crimes, a source told bdnews24.com on Saturday.

Security around jail has been ratcheted up since evening with the deployment of a large contingent of police, RAB and detective police.

By then, the family members had met the senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader for the last time.

Streets around the jail were closed to traffic and a scanner was set up in front of the jail gate around 7pm.

Dhaka’s Deputy Commissioner Tofazzal Hossain Miah and Civil Surgeon Abdul Malek Mridha arrived at the jail around 9pm.

A magistrate and the cleric entered Kamaruzzaman's cell around half an hour later.

An ambulance entered the jail just before 10pm.

Sources inside the jail said the cleric completed the war criminal's penance (Tauba) just about the same time.

Sherpur’s freedom fighters said they would take out victory marches after Kamaruzzaman is hanged.

They withdrew their demand against allowing him to be buried in the district where he led horrendous crimes during the war.

Hundreds of people thronged the area in the afternoon after Kamaruzzaman’s family entered the jail to meet him.

Police, using loudspeakers, asked the people to clear the area in the evening.

A police officer told bdnews24.com that 22 police platoons were deployed there apart from plainclothesmen.

Lalbagh division’s police Deputy Commissioner Mofizuddin Ahmed said they were preparing for all eventualities.

However, he sidestepped a question on whether the execution would be carried out Saturday night.

A special tribunal convicted Kamaruzzaman on May 9, 2013 for war crimes and the Appellate Division confirmed the verdict calling him a beast and his crimes “worse than Nazis”.

The chief justice-led bench last week threw out his plea to review the death penalty.

Kamaruzzaman followed in fellow war criminal and party leader Abdul Quader Molla’s footsteps and decided against seeking presidential pardon, the government said.

A convict must admit to his crimes before begging mercy from the head of the state.

Suspected war criminals were put on trial after the previous Awami League government set up a tribunal in 2010.

A second tribunal was set up two years later to expedite the trials.

Jamaat, accused of committing war crimes itself during the Liberation War, claims the tribunals fall short of international standards.

It accuses the government of carrying political vendetta by targeting its leaders, a charge the government rejects.

Most of the war crimes convicts are current and former members of Jamaat, which came out strongly in support of an united, non-secular Pakistan.

About three million people were killed and some 10 million were forced to flee the country during the nine-month long independence war.