Gazipur bomb blast case
HC upholds death for six JMB men
The High Court yesterday upheld the death penalty awarded by the trial court for six members of the banned Islamist militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in a case filed for bomb attack on the Gazipur court premises on November 29 in 2005 that killed nine people and injured many others. The HC, however, commuted death sentence of two accused militants to life imprisonment and acquitted two others in the case.
The convicts with death sentences are -- Enayet Ullah alias Walid, Arifur Rahman, Saidur Munshi, Abdullah Al Sohaien, Nizam Uddin Reza and Taibur Rahman alias Hassan.
The death sentences of Moshidul Islam alias Masud and Adnan Sami alias Jahangir have been commuted to life term imprisonment while Ashraful Islam and Md Shafiullah alias Tarek were acquitted by the High Court.
After reviewing the final arguments from both sides, the HC bench, comprising Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice JBM Hassan passed the verdict yesterday.
All the convicted are currently in prison, Deputy Attorney General AKM Moniruzzaman Kabir told reporters. He also said that they would move to the Supreme Court against the HC order that commuted death sentences of two accused and acquitted two others in the case.
According to the case statement, on November 29 in 2005, suicide bomber Md Nazir Hossain (alias Shariat Ullah of Gaibandha) walked into the office on the ground floor of the Hall Building-2 at the Bhawal Rajbari Court and detonated a bomb strapped to his body, killing nine people and injuring scores of others.
The deceased included the then bars general secretary Amzad Hossain, lawyers Golam Faruque, Nurul Huda and Anwarul Azim, four litigants and the attacker. The grenade attack was part of the JMBs series of suicide attacks on the countrys judiciary at that time. The JMB men killed two judges of Jhalakathi court in a suicide bomb attack only two weeks before the Gazipur suicide blast.
On June 20, 2013, the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 in Dhaka found the 10 JMB men guilty of charges of murder of nine people in the bomb attack that included four lawyers. The death reference of the case reached the HC from the trial court seven days after the court awarded death penalty to the convicts. Four lawyers including former High Court judge Delwar Hossain moved the appeals filed by Arifur Rahman, Ashradul Islam, Shafiullah Tarek and Adnan Sami against their convictions. The remaining six convicts filed appeals through the jail authorities as they could not afford lawyers fee, said the deputy attorney general.
