Shahjahan Bhuiya, who hanged a few of Bangladesh’s highest-profile dying row inmates in change for reductions in his personal theft and homicide sentences, then briefly grew to become a TikTok star after his launch from jail, died on Monday in Dhaka, the nation’s capital.
Mr. Bhuiya died in a hospital, the nationwide police stated on Tuesday, including that the trigger had not beenconfirmed. Abul Kashem, his landlord, stated in an interview that he had pushed Mr. Bhuiya to the hospital on Sunday after he complained of chest pains.
Final yr, Mr. Bhuiya advised the native information media that he was 74. However in line with Mr. Bhuiya’s nationwide identification card, supplied by Mr. Kashem, he was 66 on the time of his dying.
Mr. Bhuiya was sentenced to 42 years in jail for theft and homicide in 1991, the native information media reported. However he was in a position to shave a decade off the sentence due to good conduct and in change for hanging fellow inmates. The authorities granted him early launch final yr.
In a memoir that he printed after his launch, “What the Lifetime of a Hangman Was Like,” Mr. Bhuiya wrote that he had put 60 inmates to dying. Jail officers have stated that the proper determine was 26.
In that ebook and in interviews, Mr. Bhuiya methodically recounted among the executions. Some have been males who had formed the nation’s fashionable historical past, together with army officers convicted of assassinating the nation’s founder and first president, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, in 1975. One other was Siddiqul Islam, the chief of a militant Islamic group, who was convicted of being concerned in bombings in 2005.
He additionally put to dying two opposition leaders, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, who have been convicted of battle crimes dedicated throughout the 1971 battle that resulted in Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, in line with native police.
“Don’t let anybody take my image,” Mr. Bhuiya quoted the Islamic group chief, Siddiqul Islam, as saying simply earlier than he was executed.
“I haven’t accomplished something fallacious in my life,” stated one other dying row inmate, Ershad Shikder, a politician convicted of homicide, in line with Mr. Bhuiya. “Pray for me.”
After his launch from jail, Mr. Bhuiya printed his ebook and briefly grew to become a TikTok star. His movies usually featured his sexually suggestive conversations with younger ladies.
Mohammad Shahjahan Bhuiya was born on Jan. 1, 1958, in line with his identification card.
His hometown was a village within the district of Narsingdi, in central Bangladesh, and he had three sisters, he wrote in his memoir. Different details about his household was not instantly accessible.
He enlisted within the military however dropped out when he couldn’t full the rigorous coaching program, he wrote. He later rose the ranks of the Communist Get together of Bangladesh to change into the Narsingdi district’s department president.
Details about his theft and homicide sentence was not instantly accessible. What is obvious is that he was launched 10 years early in June 2023.
At a information convention after his launch, Mahbubul Islam, the jailer of Dhaka Central Jail, stated that Mr. Bhuiya’s sentence had been shortened partly for good conduct and the executions he had carried out. He acquired a two-month discount for every execution, Mr. Islam stated.
A prisoner can have their time period decreased by as much as 1 / 4 for finishing up executions and different jail duties, in addition to for good conduct, Suvas Kumar Ghose, a senior jail official at Dhaka Central Jail, stated in an interview.
All executions in Bangladesh are carried out by long-serving prisoners who’re chosen by the authorities, stated Juliette Rousselot, the deputy Asia director on the Worldwide Federation for Human Rights, an advocacy group based mostly in Paris. Executioners can have their sentences shortened or obtain incentives like higher jail lodging, she stated.
Bangladesh sentences tons of of prisoners to dying yearly, and about 2,400 prisoners have been on dying row as of this yr, in line with Amnesty Worldwide, an advocacy group based mostly in London. However in a given yr it sometimes carries out solely a handful of executions.
Along with making TikTok movies after his launch from jail, Mr. Bhuiya ran a tea stall, certainly one of his sisters, Firoza Begum, stated in an interview. She stated he had little contact together with his household for many years, and that his different siblings had died. No different details about survivors was accessible.
Mr. Bhuiya has appeared usually blasé in regards to the executions he carried out, even expressing pleasure for his position in placing to dying the politicians convicted of battle crimes and the army officers who assassinated the president.
Mr. Bhuiya stated at a information convention after his launch that he had been given the job of hangman as a result of “I used to be brave.”
He stated that couldn’t assist however really feel a bit of pity each time he put somebody to dying. However he added: “Even when I didn’t grasp them, another person would have.”
After three many years in jail, he felt like “a new child child from my mom’s womb,” he added. “My objective now could be to reside effectively.”