#Abdul Quader Mollah

[famousdeaths]

Abdul Quader Mollah was a Bangladeshi Islamist leader, writer, and politician of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, who was convicted of war crimes and sentenced t...

Link: Abdul Quader Mollah

[political-affairs]

Abdul Quader Molla

Abdul Quader Molla  (born 14 August, 1948)[4] is a politician in Bangladesh, convicted of war crimes during 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh.[5] He is the assistant secretary-general of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party in the country.[5][6]He is the former executive editor of The Daily Sangram, and twice unsuccessfully stood for parliament in 1986 and 1996, contesting the seat Faridpur-4 for Jamaat-e-Islami.[7]He was convicted on five of six counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes at his trial at the International Crimes Tribunal, on 5 February 2013. A member of the Al-Badar militia during the liberation war, Mollah was convicted of killing 344 civilians and other crimes.[5][8] He was sentenced to life in prison.[9]

 As a direct result of the sentence the 2013 Shahbag protests began with the protestors demanding capital punishment for all those on trial.[10] The protest spread from Dhaka to other parts of the country. Protesters called for those convicted of war crimes to be sentenced to capital punishment, and also to ban Jamaat-e-Islami.[11] Jamaat-e-Islmi started violent counter-protest in the country, demanding the release of its convicted and accused leaders.[12]On September 17, 2013, the Bangladesh Supreme Court found Molla guilty of murders and other war crimes and he was given capital punishment, converting his life sentence to death sentence

Early life

Abdul Quader Molla was born in the village of Amirabad, Faridpur in 1948. He attended school at Amirabad Fazlul Huq Institute. In 1966, while studying for a science degree at Rajendra College, Faridpur, he joined the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, then known as 'Islami Chatra Sangha' (ICS), and was elected as president. He graduated from Rajendra College in 1968, and the following year he enrolled in a Master's programme at Dhaka University. While studying there, he was elected president of the Shahidullah Hall unit of the Islami Chatra Sangha.[7][5]

Political career

In 1971 leaders of Jamaat opposed the independence movement in East Pakistan, as they believed it went against Islam to break up the Muslim state. As a member of Islaim Chatra Sangha, Quader Molla joined its paramilitary force, Al-Badar, during the liberation war.[5][14][12] But, Bangladesh achieved independence that year. Jamaat was banned from political participation under the new government. After assassination of the president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975 and a military coup, the new government permitted Jamaat to participate in politics again. Quader Molla became active in the party. By 2010 he was assistant secretary general of the party.[12] He was elected to the Bangladesh National Press Club, in recognition of his status.[15]

War crimes trial

In the twenty-first century, the government of Bangladesh established an International Crimes Tribunal to prosecute war crimes that were committed in 1971 during the liberation war. A formal charge was filed by the Prosecution against Abdul Quader Molla on 18 December 2011 in the form of a petition, as required under Section 9(1) of the 1973 Act.[16]He was charged with abetting the Pakistani army and actively participating in the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities: rape (including the rape of minors) and mass murder of Bangladeshis in the Mirpur area of Dhaka during the Bangladesh Liberation War. A member of the Rajakar militia during the war, Mollah was charged with killing 344 civilians.[5][8][17] As The Independent reported:

"Abdul Quader Mollah, the assistant secretary-general of Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami party, sparked protests when he emerged from Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on 4 February having been handed a life sentence for his role in the atrocities committed during the 1971 war for independence. He was clearly happy with the ruling – giving a victory sign to supporters outside the court. But critics of the so-called Butcher of Mirpur – who was convicted of of beheading a poet, raping an 11-year-old girl and shooting 344 people – have been left fuming over the sentence, and are calling for him to face the death sentence, like fellow accused Abul Kalam Azad."[12][18]

Verdict

Under section 20(3) of the Act of 1973, the International Crimes Tribunal announced a verdict and handed down a life sentence to Abdul Quader Molla on 5 February 2013, with an additional 15-year sentence to be served in addition to the time he has been imprisoned since his arrest.[19]

Reaction

Some activists protested and demonstrated, demanding the death penalty and an end to extremism in politics. A major protest started at the Shahbag intersection in central Dhaka.[20][21] Bloggers and online activists called for further mass demonstration at Shahbag intersection.[11][22] Thousands of people joined the protest and the demonstration culminated in the 2013 Shahbag protests.[23]Since the start of protests, tens of thousands of people have been holding day-and-night vigils at Shahbag, refusing to leave until all those convicted of war crimes are sentenced to capital punishment.[24] A counter protest against the trials and general strike was launched by Jamaat-e-Islami, as most of the accused have been Jamaat leaders.

 The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had initially expressed support for Jamaat-e-Islami, a principal ally in their Four-Party Alliance in the 2000s.[25] The BNP has commented on the Shahbag Protest, warning that the government should not be allowed to draw political mileage from the movement that is demanding capital punishment for convicted war criminals.[26]Responding to the demand of the Shahbag activists, on 13 February 2013, the National Press Club of Bangladesh stripped Quader Molla of his membership.[15] On 17 February 2013, the Bangladeshi Parliament passed a bill amending the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act of 1973.[27]Jamaat members have also led protests against the trials, saying that the government is trying to suppress the opposition. It called for a general strike in Dhaka, shutting down activity in the city.

Death sentence

On September 17, 2013, Bangladesh Supreme Court found Molla guilty of murders and other war crimes and ordered his execution, converting his life sentence to death sentence.[13].[13]

[facondevie]

The atrocities in 1971 still affect Pakistan and Bangladesh decades later. During the war Bangladesh claimed independence from Pakistan to seek liberation. The history books in Pakistan leave out what happened in Dhaka and history has been forgotten. Abdul Quader Mollah, known as the “The Butcher of Mirpur” was executed in December 2013 for his involvement with the Pakistan army that led to thousands of deaths and rape. Ayesha Siddiqa, an author and commentator, says that not many know the true narrative of what happened in 1971 and many see Mollah as a hero and not a villain.

“The conviction and execution of a Bangladeshi opposition leader over crimes committed during Bangladesh's war of independence is forcing people in both Pakistan and Bangladesh to question the official version of what transpired in 1971.

Two months after the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971, 2,400km away from a lush Dhaka racecourse where Pakistan signed its ‘instrument of surrender’ to India, a Bengali woman gave birth to a boy in Karachi, now Pakistan's largest city.

Abdul Hayee was born in a new Pakistan, where old rivalries reigned and ethnicity mattered. This context is especially important for Hayee, since ethnic Bengalis went from being Pakistan's biggest ethnic group to one of its smallest. ‘I have never visited Bangladesh,’ Hayee told Al Jazeera, ‘but Bangladesh has always been a part of me in Pakistan. It defines who I am.’

When Hayee was in the eighth grade, his schoolmates would make fun of the way he spoke and how he looked. His heavy Bengali accented Urdu, coupled with his darker skin, seemed alien to his Urdu-speaking classmates.

‘They would taunt me. They would call me a dirty Bengali,’ Hayee said.  

Forgotten history?

‘Pakistan's history books have been silent on the events that led to the fall of Dhaka in 1971,’ said Ayesha Siddiqa, an author and commentator, speaking to Al Jazeera from Islamabad.

IN DEPTH

Abdul Quader Mollah, a Bengali religious activist in Bangladesh, was a stalwart of the religious right and a rising star of the Jamaat-e-Islami political party - a group that had opposed the creation of Bangladesh and supported a unified Pakistan.

As the civil war kicked off in the former East Pakistan, Mollah became part of the Al-Badar brigade, a paramilitary force comprised of ‘like-minded pro-Pakistan Bengalis’, which was used by the Pakistani military in a killing and raping spree of Bengalis over an eight-month period.

As part of Al Badar, Mollah is said to have been involved in such intense violence that it earned him the nom de guerre ‘The Butcher of Mirpur’.

In December 2013, he was executed in Bangladesh for helping the Pakistani army kill and rape thousands of Bengalis during the 1971 independence war.  

‘We treated Bengalis so poorly from 1947 to 1971 that it caused the majority of Pakistanis to seek independence from the minority in West Pakistan through a violent struggle that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh,’ wrote Babar Sattar, a commentator for Dawn, Pakistan's largest-circulated English newspaper.

International media coverage of Mollah's conviction and his subsequent execution in Bangladesh has given an opportunity to centre-right political forces in Pakistan to reassert Pakistan's narrative of the war.

Pakistani lawmakers passed a parliamentary resolution condemning the execution of Mollah, calling him ‘a friend of Pakistan’ and his execution a violation of Pakistan's acceptance of Bangladeshi independence.

"Not many Pakistanis know that Pakistan was an aggressor against its own people in 1971. The civil war has been framed and narrated as an Indian conspiracy using ethnic Bengalis to dismember Pakistan," Siddiqa said.

The prevailing narrative has come under threat from a globally interconnected news environment spread across the World Wide Web, and a youthful Pakistani population who are increasingly spending more time online, questioning the official version of events of 1971, according to Siddiqa.

‘As a result, Pakistan's nationalist state has had to make the 1971 civil war argument more sophisticated. The story has evolved,’ said Siddiqa.

Numbers game This view is also articulated by Sarmila Bose, a scholar who got in trouble for trying to establish the exact number of war dead in her controversial book Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War. Bose wrote of mass killings of Biharis - who were supporting the Pakistani state in the civil war - at the hands of Bengali nationalists, namely the Mukti Bahini or ‘Liberation Army’.

The numbers mattered, and matter still, because they make the difference between seeing the war as a tragedy and seeing it as a terrible crime, indeed as a genocide

- Martin Woollacott, former Guardian journalist

One critique of Bose's work was to downplay the total number of Bengali deaths. It's difficult to ascertain the correct number of dead, as figures of Bengali deaths range from 300,000 to 3 million killed, according to the Bangladeshi government. ‘The numbers mattered, and matter still, because they make the difference between seeing the war as a tragedy and seeing it as a terrible crime, indeed as a genocide,’ said Martin Woollacott, a former Guardian newspaper reporter who covered Bangladesh's war of independence.

‘That in turn is important because it profoundly affects the way in which the peoples of South Asia understand both their separate and their common histories.’

Downplaying the number of Bengalis killed in the 1971 war is seen in Bangladesh as a betrayal of the independence movement. In Pakistan, it has the opposite effect. A lower death toll allows for the development of an alternative story for 1971.

‘According to this narrative, Pakistani Bengalis were killed fighting to protect Pakistan. Abdul Quader Mollah is a hero, not a villain in this story,’ said Siddiqa.  

Framing the historical debate is highly politicised - especially in Pakistan.

Researcher Saurabh Sahi was afforded access to Pakistan's Bangladesh files as he tried to quantify the killing of Biharis and their ill treatment in Bangladesh. The numbers he found vary between 25,000 and 150,000 Biharis killed by the Mukti Bahini after independence. There remain at least 250,000 Biharis still in Bangladesh living in squalid conditions in urban refugee camps.

‘Much that is both wrong and dangerous in the subcontinent today, from Pakistan's paranoia to India's extreme self-righteousness and Bangladesh's sense that it is neglected and ignored, can be traced to the 1971 conflict, even if the roots go back further still,’ said Woollacott.

The argument that the Pakistani state committed atrocities in response to ethnic Bengali aggression doesn't hold weight said Siddiqa. According to her, the Pakistani states created the circumstances and the environment in which citizens would allow for mass killings. ‘By asking who started the rape and murders and whether Mukti Bahini was more vicious or the Pakistani Army, we confirm that the bigoted mindset that led 56 percent of Pakistanis to carve out Bangladesh to protect their rights is still thriving in Pakistan,’ said Sattar.

He said the Pakistani state's role in then-East Pakistan was inexcusable. ‘Mollah has not been executed for his love for Pakistan, but for the murder and rape of fellow Bengalis, even if he did so in the name of Pakistan,’ Sattar said.

Back in Karachi, Abdul Hayee, who now cooks for some of Pakistan's wealthiest families, wants his son's future to be different.

‘He is a Pakistani and a Bengali and I want him to be proud of both his identities,’ he said.”

[avaseofwords]

A really sad letter...(made me tear up)...

[revolutionariesofthisummah-blog]

I am proud to be a martyr’s daughter: Molla’s daughter Amtullah Amtullah, the daughter of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh leader Sheheed Abdul Quader Molla, said that i have no regret over the martyrdom of my father also my family was content as they have no regret over the martyrdom of the Jamayte Islami leader and i'm proud to be a daughter of a martyr.  I hoped that the Allah Almighty will surely make Muslims successful. Amtullah said that after the Shahadat of her father a wave of deadly violence had rocked Bangladesh as the pro-Indian government had killed around 300 innocent people. She said that on Monday alone 11 Jamayte Islami workers were martyred by security forces. [RTU Admin]

[politicsandasianpoop]

Abdul Quader Mollah was the first to die for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's struggle for independence. His execution sparked a wave of deadly violence from supporters, leaving several dead.

[yakible]

VIDEO: Bangladesh Executes Islamist Opposition Leader For War Crimes

Bangladesh executed Islamist opposition leader Abdul Quader Mollah on Thursday for war crimes…

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[chittojethabhoyshunno]

Butcher of mirpur

Although i am against Death penalty and i know there are Even razakar in AL(for every1 who will argue becuz of hasina and govt)it is sad to see that People are calling quadermollah a shaheed/martyr.what is more depressing bengali People do not make others aware of the genocide 1971… There are people out there who are praising the razakars as pure Muslims, although they commited crimes in Name of islam .people should know the truth!!abdul quader molla aka butcher of mirpur is a razakar,a criminal!

[banglakotha]

                                                    Obituary 

 Abdul Quader Mollah 

Convicted War Criminal 

Died Thursday, 10.01 pm BST, Dec 12, 2013

Assistant General Secretary Jamaet-e-Islami

Born 1948, Amirabad, Bangladesh

Dhaka Central Jail, Bangladesh.

                                                 Here lies the remains of the lowest of the low....

Abdul Quader Mollah, convicted war criminal, child rapist, genocide, nicknamed " Koshai" (butcher) Mollah, who found last minute pleas for a stay onhis execution from none other than leaders of US, UK and EU, lies here.  

April 5, 1971, on Mollah's instructions, one of his aides named Akhter killed Pallab, a student of Bangla College and an organiser of the Liberation War.

o March 27, 1971, Mollah and his aides murdered pro-liberation poet Meherun Nesa, her mother and two brothers at their home at Mirpur-6 of Dhaka. o March 29, 1971, Mollah, accompanied by Al-Badr, Razakars and non-Bangla speaking Bihari men, apprehended journalist Khondoker Abu Taleb and brought him to a place known as Mirpur Jallad Khana Pump House and slit his throat. o November 25, 1971, an organised attack and indiscriminate shooting by Mollah and his cohorts killed hundreds of unarmed people of Khanbari and Ghatar Char villages in Keraniganj. o April 24, 1971, Mollah led Pakistan army men and around 50 non-Bangla speaking Biharis into an attack on unarmed people of Alubdi village in Mirpur that left 344 people killed. o Evening of March 26, 1971, under the leadership of Mollah, some Biharis and Pakistani soldiers killed one Hazrat Ali and five members of his family in Mirpur.  Mollah had raped Hazrat Ali's 11 year old daughter.  The victims sister and the only surviving member of Ali's family witnessed his heinous crime as she hid under the bed in fear for her life. 

[fuckyeahsouthasia]

Dhaka: Bangladesh on Thursday executed Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Kader Mullah, convicted of atrocities in 1971 war of independence.  Mollah is the first war crimes convict to be sent to the gallows since the country's independence in 1971. 

The decision to execute him was upheld by the Bangladesh Supreme Court on Thursday, two days after his hanging was dramatically put on hold in a last-minute reprieve.  For his atrocities and for siding with Pakistani troops during the 1971 war, 65-year-old Mollah was dubbed the "Butcher of Mirpur", after a Dhaka suburb where he led the infamous Al-Badr militia in slaughtering a large number of people, including women and children.  A death warrant was issued for Mollah, who being held at the high security Dhaka Central Jail, on Tuesday but the apex court put off the execution so that his petition challenging the death sentence could be heard.  The apex court earlier today rejected Mollah's petition. "(The review petition is) not maintainable," Chief Justice Muzammel Hossain told a packed courtroom after two days of arguments on the maintainability of the plea.  Mollah's family met him for the second time since Tuesday inside the jail. Witnesses said Mollah's two sons, four daughters and wife entered the jail at 6:25 pm and came out half an hour later.  Paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police enforced a tight vigil, mobilising riot cars and armoured personnel carriers around the prison in Old Dhaka.  Mollah, the assistant secretary-general of the Jamaat and the fourth-highest leader of the party, was the first politician to be found guilty of war crimes by the Supreme Court after it rejected an appeal to acquit him.  Jail officials earlier in the day said Mollah refused to seek presidential clemency under a constitutional provision when they asked him whether he wants to request the president to pardon him, media reports said.  Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters, "The government has fulfilled its obligation by sending executive magistrate twice to ask him if he seeks presidential mercy."  The Awami League-led government began conducting the war crimes trials in keeping with a pledge made during the 2008 election.