10 get death penalty for bomb attack on CPB rally

A Dhaka court has handed down death sentence to ten people in a case filed over bomb attack on a rally of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) in 2001 in the capital that left five people dead and 20 others injured.

Dhaka additional third metropolitan sessions judge Robiul Alam delivered the verdict on Monday.

Earlier on December 1 last year, the court set today to pronounce the judgement as the legal proceedings at the court concerned came to an end on that day.

The death row convicts are mufti Moin Uddin Sheikh, Arif Hossain Sumon, Sabbir Ahmed, Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid, Jahangir Alam Badar, Mohibul Muttakin, Aminul Mursalin, mufti Abdul Hai, mufti Shafikur Rahman and Nur Islam.

The court acquitted Rafikul Islam Miraz and Md Moshiur Rahman of the case as the charges brought against them could not be proved at the court.

Five people were killed and 20 others injured in the bomb attack on CPB rally in the capital’s Paltan Maidan on January 20, 2001.

Then CPB president Manzurul Ahsan Khan filed the case with Motijheel Police Station. But police had given final report in 2003, saying it did not find any credible evidences in the case.

Police in 2005 reopened the case and on November 27, 2013, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) gave charge sheets against 13 activists of banned extremist outfit Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami in two cases filed over murder and explosives substances acts.

The court on September 4, 2014, framed charges in the cases.

The accused were Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami leader Abdul Hannan, Moin Uddin Sheikh, Arif Hossain Sumon, Sabbir Ahmed, Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid, Md Moshiur Rahman, Jahangir Alam Badar, Mohibul Muttakin, Aminul Mursalin, Abdul Hai, Shafikur Rahman, Rafikul Islam Miraz and Nur Islam.

Of the 13, Abdul Hannan had been executed earlier in another case and his name had been dropped from this one. Of the other accused, Jahangir Alam Badar, Mohibul Muttakin, Aminul Mursalin, Abdul Hai, Shafikur Rahman, Rafikul Islam Miraz and Nur Islam were yet to be arrested.

Dhaka/Mamun Khan/AI