Jamaat-e-Islami called a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal for Thursday protesting the Supreme Court (SC) verdict that upheld the death penalty of war criminal Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed.Makbul Ahmad, acting ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, announced the strike on its website hours after the SC order on the review petition of Mojaheed against his death penalty.
The SC today upheld its previous judgment on Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed, rejecting his plea for reviewing death penalty for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha dismissed the review petition.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the only option left for the convict now is to seek presidential clemency.
“Unless he goes for the process, the government can execute his death sentence any time,” he added.
Earlier on November 17, the bench fixed today (November 18) for the delivery of Mojaheed’s verdict.
On October 14, Mojaheed filed the review petition with the SC against its verdicts that upheld his death penalty for his crimes against humanity during the 1971 war.
On October 1, the International Crimes Tribunal had issued death warrant against him.
The SC on September 30 released the full verdict giving death penalty to him for his crimes against humanity during the war, clearing the way for the execution of the judgment.
The court on June 16 upheld the death sentence awarded by the ICT-2 to Mojaheed for killing intellectuals during the war.
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on July 17, 2013 awarded Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed death penalty for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in collaboration with the Pakistan occupation forces, after finding the Al Badr boss guilty of five charges, out of seven.
On August 11, 2013, condemned convict Mojaheed filed an appeal with the Appellate Division against his capital punishment awarded by the ICT-2.
Mojaheed was arrested on charge of hurting religious sentiment on June 29, 2010 and later he was shown arrested in a case filed for committing crimes against humanity on August 2 that year.
Earlier, the court on June 29 upheld the death sentence awarded by ICT-1 to him for committing crimes against humanity, including rape and mass killing, during the Liberation War, 43 years ago.
Meanwhile, Imran H Sarkar, spokesman of Ganajagaran Mancha, announced that they will bring out a procession protesting the nationwide daylong hartal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami.
Speaking at a rally, Imran said “We are satisfied with the verdicts and we demand immediate execution of the verdicts for freeing the nation from the stigma.”
He also urged the law enforcing agencies to show zero tolerance to the hartal supporters.He also asked the Ganajagaran activists to resist the hartal.
