Hanging anytime

Speculations ran wild last night that convicted war criminal Muhammad Kamaruzzaman might be hanged any moment.

The execution seemed only a matter of time when State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Kamaruzzaman would not be given any more time to seek clemency.

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"Steps will be taken as per relevant rules," he told reporters at Shilpakala Academy around 8:00pm.

Around the same time, security was beefed up in front of the Dhaka Central Jail, where the Jamaat leader was kept. Movement of vehicles near the jail was also restricted.

Contacted, Deputy Commissioner Mofiz Uddin Ahmed of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Lalbagh Division) said the steps were taken upon orders from higher authorities.

However, the security was relaxed around 9:00pm.

Talking to The Daily Star around 10:00pm, the state minister said, "Preparations are being made for the execution. But there is little possibility that he [Kamaruzzaman] would be hanged tonight."

There are some formalities before executing a death row convict, the minister said, adding that Kamaruzzaman's family members might be allowed to meet him in jail tomorrow (today).

"Once his family members meet him, he might be executed."

Contacted, family members said they were not officially informed whether they would be allowed to meet him.

Earlier around 10:00am yesterday, two magistrates met the condemned war criminal in Dhaka Central Jail reportedly to ask whether he would beg for presidential mercy in a last-ditch bid to evade the capital punishment.

They left the prison premises after about an hour without talking to journalists waiting outside.

"Two magistrates came to the jail for official purpose," Farman Ali, senior jail superintendent, told The Daily Star. He did not say if it was related to Kamaruzzaman.

Around 12:15pm, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told this correspondent that he didn't know what Kamaruzzaman had told the magistrates.

However, the state minister told the BBC Bangla around 7:30pm that Kamaruzzaman, most possibly, had not sought presidential mercy. 

According to prison sources, preparations for the execution started soon after Farman Ali entered the Dhaka Central Jail around 7:00pm. Alongside the prison guards, additional police and Rab personnel were deployed at the jail gate and adjacent areas.

Several prison guards told The Daily Star that they had received sudden summons to duty at the jail gate. 

Deputy Commissioner Mofiz Uddin Ahmed, who is supposed to be present during Kamaruzzaman's hanging, also came around 8:30pm. Eight to ten chairs were taken inside a few minutes later for the sitting arrangement during the execution, witnesses and jail sources said.

Besides, a couple of large cloths were also brought in to mount over the gallows so that none could see the hanging from the high-rise buildings near the prison compound, jail sources said. 

Several sources said authorities were taking final preparations to hang the convict last night.

Journalists swarmed at the jail gate, speculating that Kamaruzzaman would be hanged within hours.

But all preparations came to a pause around 9:00pm, jail sources said. At 9:18pm, the deputy commissioner and the senior jail super left on a jeep making no comments to journalists.

The additional prison guards started returning homes and barracks. Minutes later, the jail sources said the procedures for the execution were not completed last night.

The sources claimed the execution didn't take place as authorities could not arrange a meeting between the convict and his family members by that time.

There was no official version as of 2:30am today about Kamaruzzaman's hanging.

Earlier in the day, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told this correspondent that the execution of Kamaruzzaman depends on the government, as the court proceedings have been finished.

The government has to ask Kamaruzzaman whether he would seek presidential mercy and to allow his family members to meet him for the last time.

If he does not seek the clemency, the government can execute him, the attorney general added.

He also said the government can wait for several days if it wants, as per the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973 under which the war crimes accused are tried and punished.

Kamaruzzaman's son Hasan told this correspondent that they feel the jail authorities will allow them to meet his father for the last time.

"It's a matter of my father's personal decision whether he will seek presidential mercy," he added. 

The execution of the Jamaat assistant secretary general has been the matter of discussion for the last five days. Many, especially people of Sherpur, where he had committed crimes against humanity in 1971, expressed dissatisfaction over the "delay" in his execution.

Kamaruzzaman, a key organiser of infamous Al-Badr force in greater Mymensingh, was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 in May 2013, for war crimes, including mass killings in Sohagpur of Sherpur.

The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence awarded to him for mass killing in Sohagpur. The convict sought review of the judgment but was rejected on April 6 by a four-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha.

On Thursday, five counsels for Kamaruzzaman met him in Dhaka Central Jail.

Coming out of the jail, Shishir Manir, one of the lawyers, said their client wanted to know about the provisions of relevant laws over seeking clemency and informed them that he would decide after giving it more thought.

On Wednesday evening, receiving the copy of the SC verdict on Kamaruzzaman's review petition, Farman Ali read it out to the Jamaat leader and wanted to know whether he would seek president's mercy, according to jail sources.