A demand from people of all strata has grown to confiscate the huge wealth amassed by war criminal Mir Quasem Ali, whose crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation in 1971 was undoubtedly proven.
This war criminal emerged as one of the leading business tycoons of Bangladesh, the birth of which he vehemently opposed in 1971. He was the main financier of Jamaat-e-Islami and its students wing Islami Chhatra Shibir.
Quasem started his business by misusing a huge amount of fund collected from Saudi Arabia to repair the country's mosques, madrasas, rehabilitate Pakistani refugees and construct households of Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams, local collaborators of Pakistani occupation forces when he returned to Bangladesh after the 1975 tragedy of assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman. Although Quasem did not give them a penny, he set up an NGO.
According to the tax return in 2010, this war criminal showed that he owned only Tk 3.34 crore wealth but actually he owned properties worth at least thousand times more than that. Interestingly, all of his earning was black money. The Jamaat-Shibir's main financer was also involved in terror financing.
Quasem was the general secretary of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, in 1971. When the student body re-emerged as Islami Chhatra Shibir in 1977, he became its founding president.
When family members of the victims of his heinous crimes were crying for justice, they unfortunately had to see the dramatic rise of Quasem in the country's political and business arenas. He fully owned and had shares in a large number of organisations including business firms, media outlets, charities and social organisations. Through these institutions, he allegedly financed Jamaat activities.
Quasem also represented several foreign charities in Bangladesh and allegedly channelled huge sums of money to his party instead of serving the stated purposes of the charities, sources in the prosecution and investigation agency said.
Quasem not only dodged the trial for the crimes he committed during the nine-month-long Liberation War but also got the opportunities to reorganise anti-liberation elements after the August 15 carnage in 1975.
The convicted war criminal had been busy trying to save his party and its top brasses when the Awami League-led grand alliance government set up special tribunal in 2010 to try those who committed crimes against humanity in 1971.
Quasem had paid $25m to an American lobbyist firm to carry out smear campaign to make the war crimes trials questionable and controversial, the then law minister Shafique Ahmed told parliament in April 2013.
Finally in November 2 in 2014, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced to death the chief of Chittagong Al-Badr, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani army, for killing, torturing, confining pro-liberation people in Chittagong in 1971.
He later filed an appeal with the SC against his conviction. The apex court on March 8 in 2016 upheld his death. On June 6 in 2016, the apex court released the full text of its 244-page judgement. The SC on Wednesday started hearing the review petition filed by Mir Quasem on June 19. The tribunal also issued death warrant on the same day against Jamaat-e-Islami leader. Mir Quasem sought time to decide his next course of action.
Quasem, son of Mir Tayeb Ali and Rabeya Begum, was born in Munsidangi Sutalori of Manikganj on December 31, 1952. He got involved in Chhatra Sangha in 1967 while studying at Chittagong Collegiate School.
Later, he became the president of Chhatra Sangha's Chittagong College and Chittagong town units and on November 6, 1971, he became the general secretary of its East Pakistan unit, according to prosecution documents. The defense didn't dispute these facts.
As a top leader of Chhatra Sangha that turned into Al-Badr force in 1971, Quasem became the chief of the infamous force in the port city and set up several torture camps there during the Liberation War, the prosecution said.
Quasem, along with his aides, abducted pro-liberation people and persecuted them inside torture camps like Dalim Hotel, Dowsta Mohammad Panjabee Building and Salma Manzil Torture Cell, before killing them, according to prosecution witnesses and documents.
Dalim Hotel was the headquarters of Chittagong Al-Badr, which had acted as the 'action section' of Jamaat during the war. The tribunal in its verdict said, "Accused Mir Quasem Ali had been in steering position of the Al-Badr detention and torture camp The accused was an indispensable cog in the 'murdering machinery' implanted at Dalim Hotel."
After the assassination of Bangabandhu, anti-liberation elements got a strong footing in the country through backing provided by the subsequent rulers. The infamous enemies of the country's independence got the chance to resurface even before their mother organisation, Jamaat-e-Islami. In 1977, Islami Chhatra Sangha started its operation in Bangladesh, renaming it as Islami Chhatra Shibir.
And Quasem, being at its helm, shouldered the responsibility to reorganise his fellows under the new umbrella.
Quasem joined Jamaat-e-Islami in 1980 as an activist, when he was coordinator of Rabeta Al Alam Al Islami, a non-governmental organisation. He became a member of Jamaat's Shura in 1985. Though he is in Jamaat's 18-member highest policymaking body -- Jamaat Central Executive Council --he was much known as a supplier of funds to his party, according to the defense and the prosecution documents.
Quasem was the chairman of Keari Ltd, a real estate and tourism company. He was also the owner of Keari Poultry, Hatchery and Process, Keari Spring, Keari Shan, Keari Taz, Keari Color Centre, Keari Jharna and Keari Telecom Limited.
He was the member secretary of Islami Bank Foundation, a sister concern of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd.
Quasem also ran eight hospitals, diagnostic and imaging centres, a medical college, nursing college, Islami Bank Hospital, Islami Bank School and College and Diganta Paper Mills.
He was also the chairman and director of Diganta Media Corporation Ltd, which owns Bangla daily Naya Diganta, and now off-the-air Diganta TV. This war criminal was also the founder chairman of Bangladesh Sangskritik Kendro.
Quasem was also the director (marketing) of Ibn Sina Pharmaceutical Industries and director (Administration) of Ibn Sina Trust, chairman of Agro Industrial Trust, member secretary of Fouad Al-Khateeb Charity Foundation, chairman of Association of Multipurpose Welfare Agencies of Bangladesh, an association of Bangladeshi NGOs, the petition said.
The war criminal was also owner of five luxurious ships Keari Cruise, Keari Dine, Keari Sindabad, Keari Karnaphuli and Keari Taranga. He also owned hundreds of apartment and shops in Dhaka, Chittagong and Cox'x Bazar.
He also held management positions in many other organisations including Industrialists and Businessmen Welfare Foundation, Allama Iqbal Sangsad, Islamic University of Chittagong, Darul Ihsan University, Centre for Strategy and Peace Studies, the petition mentioned.
Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee Acting President Shahriar Kabir told the Daily Observer, "It is our long-standing demand to confiscate the war criminals' wealth as only punishment is not enough for these war criminals. The thirty lakh martyrs of the War of Liberation will get justice if the state confiscates war criminals' wealth and compensate the kith and kin of Liberation War martyrs,"
Former Janata Bank Chairman and economist Professor Dr. Abul Barkat said, "The government should natinalise war criminals' wealth and promulgate law to compensate the affected people of War of Liberation."
"An independent audit body should be formed to know the total amount of wealth owned by Quasem as his wealth was not only used to fund Jamaat and Shibir but also in militant acts in Bangladesh," Barkat said.
