Violence broke out in Bangladesh after Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla was executed on Thursday night for genocide during the country’s 1971 liberation war.
He is the first politician to be hanged for such crimes. The 65-year old Molla was notoriously known as the ‘butcher of Mirpur’. He had been charged with crimes like rape and killing of women and children.
The hanging was confirmed by an official to the media outside the Dhaka Central Jail.
Meanwhile, even as the hanging of Molla was welcomed by the youth and the veteran of the 1971 war, violence erupted in many parts of the country, as per reports, with the Jamaat calling for a nation-wide strike on Sunday.
The security around the prison complex was tightened as the execution was carried out. Molla’s family is said to have met him for the last time. His two sons, four daughters and wife reportedly met him around 6:25 pm.
Molla is said to have sided with the Pakistani Army in 1971 and led the infamous Al-Badr militia in the Dhaka suburb of Mirpur. He had been convicted by a government-constituted war crimes tribunal. He had been earlier sentenced to life in prison, but later the Supreme Court changed the sentence to death in September.