Amnesty slams ‘hasty execution’ of Mujib killers

DHAKA - Amnesty International Wednesday condemned the “hasty executions” of five former army officers found guilty of the 1975 assassination of Bangladesh’s independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

“Transparency was needed over their hasty executions”, the rights watchdog said in a statement, adding a note of concern over the safety of family members of the convicts.

Mujib’s daughter and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government carried out the executions last week ignoring the opposition expressed from Amnesty.

Amnesty said the execution of the five men would make extradition of the other convicts in the case “highly unlikely as there is a high risk that they too would be executed”, Bdnews24 web site reported.

Six other men sentenced to death in absentia in the same case are living outside Bangladesh, and the government is seeking their extradition.

The five death-row convicts were hanged Thursday last after their mercy pleas made to President Zillur Rahman were rejected.