BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid were executed after midnight on 22 November. Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that before the execution President Md Abdul Hamid had turned down their mercy petitions. But moments before the execution, BNP in a statement citing Chowdhury’s family members said he did not seek mercy. It also said that confusion had been created over the issue.
After meeting his father in the last moment, Chowdhury’s son Hummam Quader told reporters that when he asked about the mercy plea his father retorted, “Why are you babbling such nonsense?”
Humman further stated, “I told him that the government was saying that the paper (mercy plea) had been sent from the jail, to which he replied, ‘You’ll see how many types of papers will come out during this government’s tenure’”.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, in a separate statement, also rejected the government’s claim about its Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid’s seeking mercy.