‘Quasem to get 7 days for mercy plea’

He said the jail authority read out the Supreme Court’s review verdict to death-row convict Mir Quasem Ali yesterday morning. “Mir Quasem Ali sought time from the jail authorities to decide on whether he would seek presidential clemency. We gave him reasonable time for mercy plea. But that will not be more than seven days,” he said. Death-row convict Mir Quasem Ali has sought time from the Kashimpur jail authorities to decide on whether he would seek presidential clemency. Jail super Proshanto Kumar Banik of Kashimpur Central Jail 2 read out the Supreme Court’s review verdict to Mir Quasem Ali on Wednesday morning. After listening to the verdict, Mir Quasem said he sought time from the jail authorities to decide on whether he would apply for presidential mercy, said Prashant Kumar. Meanwhile, Mir Quasem’s family met him at the jail yesterday. The IG Prisons told reporters in Dhaka that the meeting between Quasem and his family members was a regular affair. “No decision is yet to be taken in which jail Mir Quasem Ali will be hanged,” he said. On Tuesday, a five-member Appellate Division panel in its short judgement dismissed the review plea of 64-year-old death row convict, leaving him with one option to plead for presidential clemency as his last ditch effort to save his neck.