10:30pm before and after
Nazimuddin Road, the main street leading to the Dhaka Central Jail started cramming with policemen, journalists and onlookers since last afternoon.
A little after 6:00pm, the road and its adjoining alleys were made off-limits to people except journalists and the locals. Some shops in neighbouring areas were also closed down.
The whole place was teeming with security personnel aligned in three rows. Some of them stood guard on the rooftops of the nearby buildings.
Newsmen began giving live updates from the spot around the sundown. A few yards away, curious bystanders were enquiring when the execution of Kamaruzzaman would take place.
By then the execution process of Jamaat leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, the Al-Badr chief of Mymensingh, had begun inside the jail.
A little before 7:00pm, Kamaruzzaman ate his food -- rice, pigeon's meat, hilsa fish, sweetmeat -- that his family members had brought in the afternoon, according to jail sources.
He had been informed about the executive order of his execution earlier in the afternoon, sent by the home ministry.
After having his food, he took his bath and offered the Esha prayers. Then he recited Quran, said jail sources.
Around 9:15pm, Dhaka Civil Surgeon along with two other doctors checked his health.
The jail authorities and hangmen entered his condemn cell around 10:15pm. The convict was then administered tawba (pardon) by Dhaka Central Jail Jame Mosque Imam Manir Hossain.
He was handcuffed from behind and a hangman put a noose around his neck.
It was around 10:20pm that he was taken out of his cell to the gallows, guarded by 12 armed prison guards. It took him a few minutes to reach the gallows. Tying his legs, the hangmen, led by Raju and Masum, waited for the jail super's nod to pull the levers to part the scaffolds.
It was 10:30pm. Senior Jail Super Farman Ali gave his signal by dropping a handkerchief from his hand and the hangmen pulled the levers.
Kamaruzzaman was kept hanging from the noose for around 20 minutes to confirm his death, said jail insiders.
After that, the civil surgeon checked the body and declared him dead. He was not bathed after his death as per his wish.
The body of Kamaruzzaman was taken out of the jail by an ambulance around 11:40pm for his village home at Kumri Mudipara in Sherpur.
Additional Inspector General of Prisons Col Md Fazlul Kabir, DIG Prison Golam Haider, Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Tofazzal Hossain Mia, Civil Surgeon of Dhaka Abdul Malek Mridha, Jailer Nesarul Alam and four deputy jailers were, among others, present there.
FAMILY MET THE CONDEMNED
The prison authorities around 1:20pm asked the family members to meet Kamaruzzaman by 5:00pm. Around 2:45pm, the home ministry communicated the execution order with the jail authorities.
Twenty four members of his family, including his wife and children, met him at 4:12pm.
After meeting his father, Hasan Iqbal, Kamaruzzaman's eldest son, said, "There is no necessity to seek clemency from the president as he is no one to take my father's life or give it back to him."
"My father called upon his party men to refrain from any unruly decision centring the death sentence,” Iqbal said adding, "He [Kamaruzzaman] said goodbye to us with a smile."
Iqbal further told The Daily Star that his father wished to be buried at his village home in Sherpur Sadar.
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