DHAKA, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Bangladesh executed two opposition leaders on Sunday for war crimes committed during the 1971 war to break away from Pakistan, a senior police official said, in a move likely to draw an angry reaction from supporters.
"Both of them were hanged simultaneously on two separate platforms," the police official said.
Islamist opposition leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, former legislator from former premier Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), were hanged shortly after President Abdul Hamid rejected their appeals late on Saturday for clemency.
Mujahid, 67, of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, and Chowdhury, 66, were hanged at Dhaka Central Jail. The Supreme Court had previously rejected their appeals against a death sentence imposed by a special tribunal for genocide and torture of civilians during the conflict.
A.M. AHAD/ASSOCIATED PRESSSalauddin Quader Chowdhury was a former legislator from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
ZAKIR HOSSAIN CHOWDHURY/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGESRelatives of the opposition leaders arrived at Dhaka Central Jail on Thursday.ZAKIR HOSSAIN CHOWDHURY/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGESRelatives of the opposition leaders arrived at Dhaka Central Jail on Thursday.ZAKIR HOSSAIN CHOWDHURY/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGESRelatives of the opposition leaders arrived at Dhaka Central Jail on Thursday.ZAKIR HOSSAIN CHOWDHURY/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGESRelatives of the opposition leaders arrived at Dhaka Central Jail on Thursday.
