For the first time in Bangladesh, two top opposition leaders have been hanged for war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation war against Pakistan.
According to the Daily Star, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, raised the gang Al-Badr to exterminate the intelligentsia of the country and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury led his gang along with the Pakistani forces into Hindu populated villages and killed at will.
Mojaheed, 67, is the third Jamaat leader to have died for war crimes, after Abdul Quader Mollah in December 2013 and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman in April this year. Salauddin, 66, is the first BNP leader to have walked the gallows for war atrocities, according to the daily.
The executions followed the rejection of mercy pleas of the two leaders by President Abdul Hamid. The Supreme Court had rejected their petitions to review the death sentences on Wednesday. With Mujahid and Chowdhury's execution, Bangladesh has hanged four war crimes convicts so far.
The apex court had upheld the capital punishment for both the top politicians in June and July this year, and the International Crimes Tribunals issued the death warrants on October 1.
Security has been beefed up at all sensitive points in the capital, and across the country especially in potential trouble spots like Faridpur and Chittagong to avoid any untoward incident following their execution.
