On this date, April 12, 2020, Abdul
Majed, a
former Bangladesh Army officer who was convicted for his role in the 1975 Jail
Killing following the Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, was executed by hanging at
12:01am. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, the Bangladeshi Judicial did not gave any
excuse and the killer executed.
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Police escort Capt
(retd) Abdul Majed at a Dhaka court on Tuesday, April 7, 2020 Dhaka Tribune
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Father of
the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has been executed by Captain Abdul
Majed, directly involved in the murder of his family. His hanging was executed
at Dhaka Central Jail at Keraniganj at around 12:00 pm tonight. Civil surgeons,
police and prison officials were present during the night operation.
Sources
said the Home Ministry ordered the afternoon to schedule time for the execution
of Majed. After that, three executioners led by the executioner Shajahan played
a role in the execution. After receiving the Interior Ministry's order, the
jail authorities handed over the weight of Abdul Majed to the brick sack.
Earlier, Abdul Majed was last seen with his relatives on Friday evening.
Majed's wife Saleha Begum, Shalak and uncle's father-in-law met five members of
the family at Dhaka Central Jail. They were called by the authorities.
The
funeral procession started at the new hanging stage at Dhaka Central Jail,
located at Keraniganj, through Majd's funeral.
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Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman has been executed by Captain Abdul Majed, directly involved in the
murder of his family. His hanging was executed at Dhaka Central Jail at
Keraniganj at around 12:00 pm tonight. Civil surgeons, police and prison
officials were present during the night operation.
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08:01 PM, April 11, 2020 /
LAST MODIFIED: 12:39 AM, April 12, 2020
Bangabandhu’s
killer Majed hanged
The execution of Captain Abdul
Majed, convicted killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family
members, was carried out at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj at 12:01
am today.
Mahbubul Islam, jailer of Dhaka
Central Jail in Keraniganj, confirmed to The Daily Star at 12:03am.
On Friday, some family members of
Abdul Majed met him at Dhaka Central Jail where he had been kept in solitary
confinement on death row.
Earlier on Thursday, President
Abdul Hamid rejected Majed's petition for presidential clemency, filed by the
convict's lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Kajol on April 8.
Captain Majed was arrested on
April 7 from Gabtoli in the wee hours, after decades of remaining absconding.
He was nabbed by the Counter
Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit of the police.
"Majed said he arrived in
the country on March 15 or 16 from Kolkata. He claimed that he was hiding there
for about 23 years," Hemayet Uddin Khan, assistant public prosecutor, told
The Daily Star.
The Supreme Court on November 19,
2009, upheld the death sentences of Abdul Majed and 11 other self-confessed
killers of Bangabandhu. Of them, five were executed on January 27, 2010.
They were Syed Farooq Rahman,
Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mohiuddin
Ahmed.
Six other convicts, including
Abdul Majed remained at large. The other fugitive killers are sacked Lt Col
Khandaker Abdur Rashid, SHBM Noor Chowdhury, Shariful Haque Dalim, Rashed
Chowdhury, and Risaldar Moslehuddin.
Another condemned killer, Aziz
Pasha, died in Zimbabwe in June, 2001.
Captain Majed was also found
guilty and sentenced for life in the jail killing case, involving the murder of
former Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed and three other imprisoned Awami League
leaders.
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God takes no pleasure
in the death of sinners, so as to delight simply in their death; rather, he
delights to magnify his justice by inflicting the punishment which their
iniquities have deserved. A righteous judge who takes no pleasure in condemning
a criminal, may yet justly command him to be executed so that law and justice
may be satisfied, even though it is in his power to procure him a reprieve. – George Whitefield, Letter to Wesley, Bethesda in Georgia, Dec. 24, 1740
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Bangabandhu’s
killer Majed hanged
Published
at 12:17 am April 12th, 2020
A fugitive for over 20 years,
Majed was arrested on Tuesday
Abdul Majed, one of the convicts
in the killing of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, has been executed at the Dhaka Central Jail.
“The convict was hanged at
12:01am Sunday,” Inspector General (Prisons) Brigadier General AKM Mustafa
Kamal Pasha said.
He said other concerned officials
including a magistrate, police representatives witnessed the execution as
required by the law.
"This was the first case of
the execution since Dhaka Central Jail was relocated in Keraniganj," he
added.
Defying the coronavirus
restriction, a number of people emerged in front of the jail at midnight.
Earlier, the prison authorities
called Majed’s wife for a final visit as per the last wish of the death-row convict.
His body will be taken to Bhola
for burial today although two MPs, including a former Chhatra League leader
from Bhola have said they will not let that happen in their district.
After the execution, Law Minister
Anisul Huq told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have pledged to the people that we will
make sure the judgement that has been delivered by all the courts of the
country, will be properly implemented and executed and I think for the 6th one
we have been able to do it and we will continue till we have completed the
implementation of the judgement.”
There are five other killers of
Bangabandhu and his family who are on the run.
Earlier on Friday, four family
members, that did not include the convict’s wife, met him at prison.
Majed’s death sentence was executed
within four days after President Abdul Hamid turned down his clemency plea on
Wednesday.
The same day, the Dhaka District
and Sessions Judge’s court issued the death warrant for Majed, who was arrested
in Dhaka on April 7.
The arrest
After being on the run for over
20 years, Majed, a sacked Bangladesh Army officer who later served in different
government positions, was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday in Dhaka.
One of the 12 assassins awarded
the death penalty for the 1975 killings, Majed had been hiding in Libya and
Pakistan before moving to neighbouring India and residing there for the last
about two decades.
Majed crossed over into
Bangladesh on March 15 or 16 through the border in Mymensingh after the
coronavirus pandemic unfolded.
The sacked army officer, who
later served in different government positions, including at Bangladesh
missions abroad, fled the country after the Awami League assumed office in
1996.
Life as a fugitive
During initial interrogation,
Majed said he had been living in neighbouring India for more than 20 years.
After going to India in 1996, he
travelled to Libya and then Pakistan, before returning to India, where he had
been living in different states. But for the last three to four years he had
been living in Kolkata and was in touch with his family in Bangladesh.
Majed, who hails from the
southern district of Bhola, was also involved in the murder of the four
national leaders in Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975, Home Minister
Asaduzzaman Khan said after his arrest.
He then worked at Bangabhaban,
before leaving Bangladesh the same year, along with the other army officers
involved in the assassination, for Libya.
Majed was then appointed to the
Bangladesh embassy in Senegal by military ruler Ziaur Rahman.
In 1980, he was appointed to the
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) with the rank and status
of a deputy secretary. He was subsequently promoted as secretary and served as
the director of Department of Youth Development and Department of National Savings.
Majed went into hiding after the
Awami League won the national elections in 1996.
Another five killers still at large
The architect of Bangladesh’s
independence, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was killed along with most of
his family members at his home. His daughters, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and
Sheikh Rehana, survived as they were abroad at the time.
The investigation into the
assassinations was stopped by an Indemnity Ordinance, which saved the
self-proclaimed killers from facing justice.
After the Awami League assumed
office in 1996, the ordinance was abrogated, clearing the way for the killers
to be brought to justice.
In 1998, a Dhaka sessions judge’s
court found 15 people guilty and awarded the death penalty. In 2001, the High
Court acquitted three but upheld the death sentences of 12.
In 2010, the Appellate Division
upheld the verdict. The same year, five of the convicts — Syed Farooq Rahman,
Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Mohiuddin
Ahmed—were hanged.
Another convict Aziz Pasha died
as a fugitive in Zimbabwe.
Majed was one of the six
absconding convicts along with Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, M Rashed
Chowdhury, SHMB Noor Chowdhury and Risaldar Moslemuddin until he was arrested
and executed on Sunday.
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