Staff Reporter :
Hummam Quader Chowdhury, son of executed BNP leader and former minister Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, has accused former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of masterminding his father’s death to remove nationalist political opponents from her path.
Speaking at a press conference at the family’s Dhanmondi residence on Thursday, Humam claimed that his father’s 2015 execution on war crimes charges was the result of a politically motivated “judicial murder.”
He alleged that the verdict in the case was drafted in the law ministry, not by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). “On the day the judgment was announced, my father already had a copy in his hand. It had come from the ministry, proving the verdicts were not being written in the tribunal,” he said.
Humam described the ICT as a key political tool of the Awami League during its 16 years in power, designed to eliminate perceived enemies. “Hasina’s goal was clear – to remove those who believed in nationalism. Like all dictators, she used killing, enforced disappearance, and suppression to stay in power. My father became a victim of that same game plan,” he said.
He accused the authorities of deliberately blocking defense witnesses who could have proven his father was in Pakistan during the 1971 Liberation War. According to Humam, only four defense witnesses were allowed out of 20 possible charges, while one key witness – a then-sitting judge – was denied permission by then-Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha to testify. He also referred to the “Skype scandal,” in which Justice Md Nizamul Huq Nasim was allegedly heard discussing personal career benefits if he ensured Salauddin Quader’s execution.
Humam revealed that he has obtained what he described as a classified “cipher message” from the foreign ministry instructing Bangladeshi missions abroad not to issue visas to four witnesses from Punjab University who could have testified for his father. “These cipher messages are usually coded and secret. This one proves a grave injustice – that the Awami League regime was directly involved in preventing my father from mounting a proper defense,” he said.
Calling it potentially one of the darkest moments in Bangladesh’s judicial history, Humam announced plans to serve a legal notice to the current foreign ministry demanding the declassification of all cipher messages connected to his father’s trial. “We are asking for every cipher message related to the trial to be declassified and handed over to us,” he said, adding that new Bangladesh has encouraged some individuals to come forward with evidence supporting their claims.
Humam reiterated his family’s intent to challenge the case again in court, expressing hope that they would be able to prove Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s innocence. “We fought for years against the ICT, questioning whether it was a real court at all. This evidence will strengthen our fight to prove that my father was wrongfully executed,” he said.
