Gallows For 1971 War Criminal
- Bangladesh’s SC upholds death sentence of top Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury
- Chowdhury, a seven-time MP and former minister is accused of 1971 war-time ‘crimes against humanity’
- Chowdhury is the first BNP leader and the second former minister to get death sentence
- Chowdhury was believed to be one of Pakistan’s biggest assets in independent Bangladesh
As India debates whether Yakub Memon should hang for the 1993 Mumbai explosions, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence meted out to top Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury by a war crimes tribunal.
A four-judge appeals bench of the Bangladesh Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha ruled that Chowdhury, a seven-time MP and former minister, will hang for his 1971 war-time ‘crimes against humanity’.
He is the first BNP leader and the second former minister to have his death sentence upheld after Jamaat-e-Islami’s Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid.
Salauddin is no commoner like Memon. His father Fazlul Quader Chowdhury of the Muslim League was speaker of undivided Pakistan’s National Assembly and acting president of Pakistan on a few occasions before 1971.
A parliamentary affairs advisor of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, Chowdhury was believed to be one of Pakistan’s biggest assets in independent Bangladesh.
‘Terror of Chittagong’
During the 1971 Liberation war, they called him the “terror of Chittagong.” Under his leadership, Chittagong, scene of one of the most valiant anti-British uprisings under ‘Masterda’ Surya Sen in the 1930s, was turned into a killing field, where thousands died at the hands of the Pakistan army and its Bengali collaborators.
The same day the Supreme Court upheld Chowdhury’s death penalty, it also issued contempt ruling against “Dainik Janakantha” editor Atikullah Khan and its executive editor Swadesh Roy for publishing an article about a meeting between some family members of Chowdhury and Chief Justice Sinha.
That article provoked furious protests by pro-Liberation elements who began to doubt whether Chowdhury’s death penalty might fall through.
As in other war crimes verdicts in Bangladesh, one of main charge against Chowdhury – and other Jamaat leaders who fought and killed their own people in defence of Pakistan – has been the atrocities they perpetrated against the Hindus.
Some have been punished for forcible conversions, some for atrocities and others for both. That is what makes the Bangladesh trials unique, though the West has complained that they don’t meet “international standards”.
War Crimes Tribunals
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Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government set up two war crimes tribunals after coming to power to try those accused of “crimes against humanity” during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war.
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 sentenced Chowdhury to death on October 1, 2013, for murdering Kundeshwari Oushadhalaya owner Nutan Chandra Singha, for massacre of hundreds of Hindus at Sultanpur and Unasattar Parha, and abduction and murder of a Hathazari Awami League leader and his son Sheikh Alamgir.
The Appellate Division has now confirmed the tribunal’s verdict after 21 months. Chowdhury is the fifth to get a verdict on the appeal against the tribunal’s judgment.
Singha’s son Prafulla Chandra was happy with the verdict.
I am so happy to see this death verdict against the murderer of my father. I want him to be hanged soon.
—Prafulla Chandra
Torture Chamber
Chowdhury’s Goods Hill residence in Chittagong was well known as a torture chamber in 1971. There, thousands of Hindus and Awami Leaguers, freedom fighters and their supporters were dragged in for brutal torture and ultimate death.
Chowdhury has only one thing in common with Yakub – he is also pleading innocence and seeking to file a final review petition against the Supreme Court verdict.
“My last battle is far from over, I hope to get justice with my final review,” Chowdhury told his jailors today after hearing of the verdict on radio. He says he is victim of political vendetta and has been falsely implicated in war crimes charges.
But pro-Liberation elements across Bangladesh are celebrating the verdict.
“He is a symbol of impunity. He must die. We all know what he did to our people, especially the Hindus. It is unpardonable.
—Sumi Khan, Journalist and Chittagong resident
(The writer, a veteran BBC correspondent, is author of two highly acclaimed books on Northeast India -- “Insurgent Crossfire” and “Troubled Periphery”)
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