DHAKA, April 11, 2020 (BSS) – Prison authorities today said last moment
preparedness was underway to hang Bangabandhu Murder Trial convict sacked
military captain Abdul Majed at Dhaka Central Jail at Keraniganj.
“We are set for the execution . . . the last moment preparedness is
underway,” inspector general of prisons Brigadier General AKM Mostafa Kamal
Pasha told BSS.
He said that the main hangman and his alternatives were kept ready for the
execution which was due to be witnessed by concerned officials as required by
the Jail Code.
They included Dhaka’s deputy commissioner who is the district magistrate as
well, police superintendent, civil surgeon, jail super and jailer while Pasha
said he would also be present when the convict would be executed.
“The stage is set, you can wait for the execution,” Home Minister
Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal briefly said earlier.
Their comments came a day after family members met the death-row convict
and stayed with him for nearly two hours while jail officials said they were
Majed’s wife and four other relatives.
President Abdul Hamid rejected his mercy petition three days ago, clearing
ways for his execution hours after Majed sought clemency as the last ditch
effort to save his neck.
Dhaka’s District and Sessions Judge’s Court earlier on that day issued his
death warrant as Majed was produced on the dock when Judge Helaluddin
Choudhuy also read out the charges and original judgment in line with legal
procedures.
Court officials and police said, ahead of issuing the death warrant the
judge also talked to the convict to confirm his identity.
The same court with Golam Rasul being the judge issued the original
judgment in 1998 which was validated later by the High Court and eventually
by Supreme Court’s appellate division.
Kamal earlier said the “self confessed killer” was not only involved in the
killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman but also took part in the
subsequent murders of four national leaders in high security Dhaka Central
Jail on November 3, 1975.
Majed was on the run for nearly two and half decades to evade justice and
after his arrest he said he was hiding in India’s West Bengal for the past 23
years and returned to Bangladesh last month.
He was handed down the death penalty along with 12 other ex-military
officers 1998 while the verdict was subsequently upheld by the High Court and
the Supreme Court’s apex Appellate Division.
In a dramatic event a specialised police unit last week arrested Majed from
near a shrine in the capital, after his return home for unknown reasons.
Majed is one of the six absconding sacked army officers who were handed
down capital punishment after trial in absentia.
Twelve sacked military officers were sentenced to death for the August 15,
1975 carnage and five of them were executed by now while one died a natural
death as he was on the run abroad.