Two Bangladesh opposition leaders executed

Bangladesh executed two opposition leaders on Sunday for war crimes committed during the 1971 war to break away from Pakistan, a senior police official said, a move likely to draw angry reaction from supporters.

Opposition leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, former legislator from former premier Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were hanged shortly after President Abdul Hamid rejected their appeals for clemency.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected the final appeals of both men.     

"They submitted two petitions to the Ministry of Home Affairs through the jail authority, and the ministry ultimately sent them to the President," Law Minster Anisul Huq said.

The jail authority said previously that it had asked the family members of both convicts to visit them for the last time and the relatives had arrived at the jail gate.

Security has been tightened around the jail, and restrictions have been placed on the use of several roads close to the jail.

Paramilitary forces have been deployed in the capital and in other major cities.

Reuters