Bangladesh’s most feared executioner died on Monday, police said, a year after he was released from prison where he hanged some of the country’s most notorious serial killers, opposition leaders convicted of war crimes and coup plotters.
Since his release from prison in June last year, Shahjahan Bouya, 70, wrote a best-selling book recounting his experiences as an executioner, was briefly married to a woman 50 years his junior, and in recent weeks has taken TikTok by storm with short clips featuring teenage girls.
He felt chest pain at his home in the industrial town of Hemayetpur, outside the capital Dhaka, on Monday morning and was rushed to Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Hospital, police said.
“He was brought dead – doctors are yet to ascertain the actual cause of his death,” Dhaka police station chief Sajib Dey told AFP.
“He was having trouble breathing,” Bauya’s landlord, Abul Kashem, told AFP. “He rented one of our rooms 15 days ago. He lived alone.”
Bouya was serving a 42-year prison sentence for a murder case.
But he survived dozens of executions in prisons which reduced his sentence and last year he was released from Dhaka’s top jail.
According to human rights group Amnesty International, Bangladesh ranks third in the world for the death penalty, and is the country’s largest death penalty.
“So much power”
A well-educated Marxist revolutionary, Bouya joined the outlawed Sarbahara rebels in the 1970s and sought to overthrow a government he saw as a puppet of neighbouring India.
He was convicted for the death of a truck driver in a shootout with police in 1979.
While in custody during his trial – which lasted 12 years – he witnessed the “first class” treatment meted out to executioners, and saw four other prisoners giving one executioner massages.
“An executioner has a lot of power,” he said to himself, and volunteered his services.
According to prison officials, Bouya was executed a total of 26 times, but he says he participated in 60.
Those killed by him included military officers found guilty of plotting a 1975 coup and killing the country’s founding leader, the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Activists say Bangladesh’s criminal justice system is seriously flawed, but Bouya has ignored their criticisms, although he believes at least three of those he sentenced to death were innocent.
In February, his book on his years as an executioner was published and became a bestseller at Bangladesh’s biggest annual book fair.
His 96-page book describes the execution procedures that the country inherited from its British colonial rulers.
He described the entire process in a nonchalant manner, and never got into the debate about abolishing capital punishment.
He also sheds light on the last moments of some of the country’s controversial personalities and serial killers.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
