Mir Quasem Ali, 63, was executed for murder, torture and incitement to religious hatred during the war fought to break away from Pakistan in 1971

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A top Islamist party figure was hanged in Bangladesh on Saturday for atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, the country’s law minister said, an act that could draw an angry reaction from his supporters.

Mir Quasem Ali, 63, a key financier of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was executed at Kashimpur Central Jail on the outskirts of the capital for murder, confinement, torture and incitement to religious hatred during the war fought to break away from Pakistan.

Ali was hanged at 10.35pm local time, law minister Anisul Haq told Reuters.

Islamist party member in Bangladesh sentenced to death for 1971 war crimes Read more

The execution took place amid a spate of militant attacks in the Muslim-majority nation, the most serious on 1 July, when gunmen stormed a cafe in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter and killed 20 hostages, most of them foreigners.



Thousands of extra police and border guards were deployed in Dhaka and other major cities. Previous convictions and executions have triggered violence that has killed about 200 people, most of them Islamist party activists, and police.

Since December 2013, five Jamaat leaders, including former top leader Motiur Rahman Nizami, and a leader of the main opposition party, have been executed for crimes committed during the 1971 war.



Prosecutors said Nizami was responsible for setting up the pro-Pakistani al-Badr militia, which killed leading writers, doctors and journalists in the most gruesome chapter of the war. Their bodies were found blindfolded with their hands tied and dumped in a marsh at the outskirts of the capital. The trial heard Nizami had ordered the killings, designed to “intellectually cripple” the fledgling nation.

He was hanged in May after being convicted in October 2014 by the international crimes tribunal, set up by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, in 2010. The tribunal has drawn criticism from opposition politicians, who say it is targeting their political foes. The government denies the accusations.



Human rights groups say the tribunal’s procedures fall short of international standards, but the government rejects that assertion, and the trials are supported by many Bangladeshis.

Official figures show about 3 million people were killed and thousands of women were raped during the nine-month war, in which some factions, including Jamaat-e-Islami, opposed the breakaway. Independent researchers put the death toll at between 300,000 and 500,000.