Bangladesh independence leader assasination:

Mujibur Rahman killers executed

BANGLADESH: Bangladesh hanged five ex-army officers on Wednesday who were convicted of assassinating independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family three decades ago, killings that sparked a series of coups.

His wife, three sons and several relatives were also gunned down when the plotters struck in 1975, ending the south Asian country’s first spell of democracy. Two daughters were abroad at the time and the elder, Sheikh Hasina, is now prime minister.

Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971 under the leadership of Mujibur, or Mujib as he was popularly called, following a nine-month war, in which three million people died, according to Bangladesh government records. The executed ex-officers were identified as Major Bazlul Huda, Lieutenant Colonel Mohiuddin Ahmed, Lieutenant Colonel Syed Faruk Rahman, Lieutenant Colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan and army lancer A.K.M. Mohiuddin.

Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected appeals by the men against their death sentences and within hours, legal and government officials told reporters outside Dhaka central prison the men had been hanged.

“The executions have pulled the curtain finally down on one of history’s most gruesome killings,” chief state attorney Mahbube Alam said.

Hundreds of police and special forces were deployed outside the prison, where a crowd, including Mujib supporters, gathered. Others thronged outside Mujib’s Dhaka home.

The trial of Mujib’s killers and coup leaders began only after Hasina was first elected prime minister in 1996. Her government revoked the immunity granted by the administration installed after the 1975 coup. In 1998 a judge sentenced 15 of 20 defendants to death, of whom only four were in custody. After a series of appeals three convictions were overturned, but not for those already in jail.

Between 2001 until early 2009 when Hasina’s rival Begum Khaleda Zia was in power, various appeals delayed the death sentences being carried out. In 2008 one of the men convicted in the 1998 trial was extradited from the United States.

After becoming prime minister again last January Hasina vowed to push through with the case.

There were fears the executions might spark protests because groups in the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami are anti-Mujib. Some argued the push for executions so long after the assassination was politically motivated.

However, some lawyers and analysts said carrying out the death sentence on Mujib’s assassins would restore people’s faith in justice and strengthen their confidence in the rule of law.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami made no comment immediately.

DHAKA, Thursday, Reuters