A special tribunal in Dhaka sentenced Mir Quasem Ali to death Sunday for his crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War while the fate of Mr Kamaruzzaman, already on death-row, will be decided by the apex court today (Monday).
The back-to-back disposal of the cases -- after the lapse of some time in a pause -- is preceded by the capital punishment handed down to the Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Motiur Rahman Nizami, five days back on similar charges.
The Jamaat-e-Islami had called three days of hartal for Thursday, Sunday and Monday following last Wednesday's International Crimes Tribunal verdict sentencing Nizami to death.
Mohammad Kamaruzzaman
And in a rather preemptive action, the party again called a hartal for next Thursday with regard to its assistant secretary-general Kamaruzzaman's final case disposal.
Actually, the strikes are destined to result in eight days closure of normal business, academic and other daily activities as well as disruption of long-haul road transport.
Two two-day weekends and Ashura holiday on Tuesday fall in-between along the line of closure. The only normal working day during the doldrums happens to be Wednesday.
On Sunday, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 handed down death penalty to Mir Quasem for the crimes while he had led Al-Badr force in his hometown Chittagong.
Ten out of 14 charges were proved against the 62-year-old, said the tribunal while delivering the verdict.
As the third most powerful man of the Al-Badr force, Ali got the highest penalty on two of the charges he was convicted of.
One charge is torture and killing of adolescent freedom fighter Jasim along with five unidentified people after Eid-ul-Fitr in 1971 at Dalim Hotel at Andorkilla in Chittagong after abduction.
The other one is the kidnapping of Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Ranjit Das Prokash Latu and Tuntu Sen in November 1971. Latu and Tuntu were later killed and their bodies never found.
Mir Quasem is known as a key financier of Jamaat, which was instrumental in blocking the birth of Bangladesh by collaborating with the Pakistan occupation forces and carrying out crimes against humanity, report agencies.
"The verdict was based on false witness accounts," defence counsel Mizanul Islam quoted the convict in his immediate reaction from the dock.
Alleging that they were deprived of justice, Islam said they would go for appeal to the Supreme Court where they expect to get "justice". Justice Obaidul Hassan, chairman of the ICT-2, read out 11 pages out of the 351-page judgment.
Apart from Mir Quasem, seven other top Jamaat leaders have already been sentenced for their 1971 crimes and two other top notches -- Abdus Subhan and ATM Azharul Islam -- are being tried in the war crimes tribunals.
The government is "satisfied" with the death penalty to Mir Quasem Ali and will take all legal steps to uphold the sentence if an appeal is lodged with the apex court, Law Minister Anisul Huq said.
"We are happy with the verdict," the law minister was quoted as saying to reporters.
Hot on the heels of the Ali verdict came an announcement Sunday that the Supreme Court will deliver its judgment today (Monday) on the appeal of Muhammad Kamaruzzaman challenging death penalty awarded to him for his wartime offences.
His appeal has been placed on tomorrow's (Monday) cause list of the Appellate Division of the SC for verdict, said SM Kuddus Zaman, acting SC registrar.
On concluding the hearing on the appeal on September 17, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha kept it as 'case awaiting verdict'.
Three other judges of the bench are Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik.
On May 9 last year, the ICT-2 had sentenced Kamaruzzaman, known as one of the key organisers of the Al-Badr force, to death for committing crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War.
His involvement in killing 164 people in Sohagpur village and Golam Mostafa of Gridda Narayanpur village in Sherpur in 1971 earned him the highest penalty.