Security boosted as Bangladesh set to hang top Jamaat leader

Bangladeshi security personnel stand guard outside a jail in Dhaka on Tuesday, where convicted Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami is said to be scheduled to hang. — AFP DHAKA — Bangladesh police on Tuesday stepped up security at the capital Dhaka’s main prison where the authorities are expected to hang the leader of the country’s largest religious political party for war crimes. Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, could be hanged as early as Tuesday night after the country’s highest court published the final judgment upholding his execution order. Nizami’s execution would exacerbate tensions in the country after a string of killings of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities by suspected militants. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the 73-year-old leader could be executed at “any time” if he did not seek mercy from the country’s president. “We’re making all preparations,” Khan told reporters. Officials formally read the verdict to Nizami on Monday night after he was brought to Dhaka Central Jail from a prison outside the capital, senior jailor Jahangir Kabir told reporters. The Jamaat leader did not say then whether he would seek any clemency, Kabir said, and prisoners are normally given a 24-hour window after verdict publication to formally apply. Nizami’s lawyer told AFP last week that he would not seek any pardon as it would require him to admit crimes he was convicted of, including mass murder, rape and orchestrating the killing of secular intellectuals during the 1971 war of independence. — AFP