13th anniv of Aug 17 blasts today
Trial in five cases in Dhaka to end by Jan
BSS
The nation is set to recall today the countrywide simultaneous bomb attacks carried out by the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) on August 17, 2005, reports BSS. Two persons were killed and over 50 people wounded as the outfit carried out the bomb attacks at around 500 points in all districts except Munshiganj on August 17 in 2005. Different socio-cultural organizations and political parties will observe the 13th anniversary of the serial blasts in a befitting manner with a renewed call to stamp out militancy from the country.
Police said 159 cases were lodged in different parts of the country over the blasts. Police submitted charge sheets in 149 cases against 1106 JMB men while final reports in 10 other cases have been submitted, according to available statistics of the police headquarters.
Trial in 94 cases has already been completed in which 334 people have been sentenced with different jail terms while trial in 55 cases against 386 JMB operatives is going on, the sources said. A total of 349 accused in the serial blasts have already been acquitted of the charges, it added.
Twenty-seven accused in the serial blasts have already been handed down with death penalty and eight of them have been hanged.
Meanwhile, the prosecution yesterday hoped that the trial in five cases over the series blasts in the capital on August 17, 2005 will be complete by January next year.
Eighteen cases were lodged with different police stations in the capital to this end. Verdicts in two of the cases were delivered while final reports in 11 other cases were submitted to the court and five more cases are awaiting verdict, said Public Prosecutor in-charge of Dhaka Metropolitan Shah Alam Talukder.
A Dhaka court sentenced 10-year imprisonment to a JMB
operative and seven years to another one in a series blasts case filed with Tejgaon Police Station while five more operatives were sentenced to 10-year imprisonment in another blast case filed with Bimanbandar (airport) Police Station, he added.
The five under trial cases are now at the stage of deposition, he said, hoping that the trial in the cases would complete by January next.
Replying to a query about the reason of submitting final reports in 11 serial blast cases out of 18, he said, The final reports in 11 cases were submitted to the court as investigation officers could not probe the incidents due to failure to locate addresses of the accused and the witnesses.
The JMB had shown their existence to the nation by carrying out the series blasts on August 17, 2017. But their organizational activities suffered a huge setback with the execution of death sentences of JMBs top six leaders in 2007.
The six leaders Shaikh Abdur Rahman, his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny, think-tank Abdul Awal, Khaled Saifullah and Salahuddin were hanged on March 30 in 2007 in the case for the killing of two judges in Jhalokathi district.
But, Tamim Chowdhury had reorgainsed the JMB after his return to the country from Canada in 2013 under the banner of neo-JMB. While the law enforcers have successfully contained them with the killings of some top Neo-JMB leaders including Tamim Chowdhury in a nationwide crackdown against militants that started after Holey Artisan Bakery attack on Gulshan in the capital on July 1, 2016.
