DHAKA — Thousands of police were deployed Wednesday in Bangladesh after the Jamaat-e-Islami party’s leader was executed for war crimes, in a country reeling from a string of killings of secular and liberal activists.
Jamaat-e-Islami party president Motiur Rahman Nizami was hanged at Dhaka’s Central Jail late Tuesday, after the top court upheld his death sentence for the massacre of intellectuals during the 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.
Nizami, a 73-year-old former government minister, was the fifth and the most senior opposition figure executed since the secular government set up a controversial war crimes tribunal in 2010.
Police erected check-posts on major Dhaka roads to deter violent protests and officers and the elite Rapid Action Battalion were patrolling the capital, officials said.
“Several thousand policemen have been deployed in the capital as part of the stepped up security measures,” Dhaka police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sorder said.
Security was also tight in Nizami’s northwestern ancestral district of Pabna after his body was taken under armed escort overnight for burial in the family graveyard.
“At least 16 activists of Jamaat were arrested on Tuesday night as part of the security clampdown,” Pabna police inspector Ahsanul Haq said.
Jamaat has called a nationwide strike for Thursday in protest over Nizami’s execution.
Executions of Jamaat officials in 2013 triggered the country’s deadliest violence in decades. Around 500 people were killed, mainly in clashes between hard-liners and police.
But a fresh wave of bloodshed is considered unlikely following a major crackdown by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government that has seen tens of thousands of Jamaat supporters arrested and detained.
Mubashar Hasan, an assistant professor at Bangladesh’s University of Liberal Arts, said Tuesday’s execution sounded the death knell for the already embattled Jamaat.
“With the execution of Nizami, the Jamaat leadership who revived the fortune of the party in the post-1971 period are now almost gone,” said Hasan.
“It’s a big blow for the party.”
Hasan also warned that the execution and crackdown could further radicalize Jamaat supporters against the government in the nation.
“The party may have grievances and these grievances may lead to radicalization, which would be suicidal,” he said.
The execution comes as Bangladesh is suffering from a wave of gruesome murders of secular bloggers, liberal activists and religious minorities by suspected militants.
The Daesh and a Bangladesh branch of Al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility, but the government blames homegrown militants and accuses the opposition of trying to destabilize the country. Since last month an atheist student, two gay rights activists, a liberal professor, a Hindu tailor and a Sufi Muslim leader have been hacked to death. — AFP
