[Dhaka Tribune] Chief of banned bad boy outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Mufti Abdul Hannan and seven of his aides have to walk the gallows for killing 10 people in a kaboom incident during the traditional celebrations of the Bangla New Year at the capital's Ramna Batamul in 2001.For the same offence, six other HuJI
Founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Aktar. The Bangla branch was established in 1992 with assistance from Osama bin Laden. Recruits come mostly from Deobandi madrassahs. HuJI and Fazlur Rehman Khalil are signators of bin Laden's declaration of war on the west.
members were sentenced to life term imprisonment for conspiracy, plotting and carrying out the attack on commoners who were visiting the place to observe the day, 13 years back, on April 14.
Judge Ruhul Amin of the Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka read out the verdict in a jam-packed courtroom amid tight security measures yesterday morning.
The court also fined the 14 convicts Tk50,000 each.
Before reading out the sentences, the judge, in his observation, said the incident had no political link, and that the case was not a political one. Those who had died had gone to the place with their family members, kith and kin and children to celebrate the Bangla New Year. They were common people.
This celebration is not meant for any particular party, class, ideology, group or religion. That day, several thousand people of different religions, castes, groups, sexes and ages gathered at the venue.
The judge said from the confessional statements of the accused and depositions of witnesses, the court learned that two powerful bombs had been planted technically in the spot early in the morning, hours before the programme began.
According to bomb experts, two remote control devices were used to detonate the bombs.
The first bomb went
kaboom!around 8:05am and the other 10-15 minutes later. Seven innocent people was struck down in his prime during the first kaboom and 20-25 people sustained injuries. Later three persons died at hospitals while undergoing treatment.
"The attackers did not target any certain person, object or group. The [organiser] Chhayanaut is also a non-political organization," the judge said.
"The motive of the attacks was to create political turmoil and panic, to pollute the cultural arena and stop cultural activities in the country. What the attackers and the planners did that day was heinous, barbaric and cruel. There is no scope to show sympathy or favour them," the court observed.
According to the accounts of the accused, there was no religious or social clash between the attackers and the victims. It was an attack on Bengali culture so that the people refrained from celebrating the day.
"It is one of the most heinous, barbaric and shameful attacks on general people since the country's War of Independence," the court said.
During the trial proceedings, six of the injured gave their depositions while eight more people who were present on the spot described the incident before the court. The other witnesses included eight relatives of the victims.
The court said the prosecution had succeeded in proving the charges against the accused based on the witness accounts and documents. Confessional statements of three accused, especially HuJI chief Mufti Hannan's statement, had helped the court to draw its conclusion. In his statement made on November 19, 2006, Hannan said they had carried out the attack since the programme was "anti-Islamic."
The death row convicts are Mufti Abdul Hannan Munshi alias Abul Kalam alias Abdul Mannan, Arif Hasan alias Suman alias Abdur Razzak, Maulana Akbar Hossain alias Helal Uddin, Alhaj Maulana Md Tajuddin (absconding), Hafez Jahangir Alam Badar (absconding), Maulana Abu Bakar alias Hafez Selim Hawlader (absconding), Mufti Shafiqur Rahman (Absconding) and Mufti Abdul Hye (absconding). Of them, Hannan, Akbar and Arif Hasan admitted their involvement in the incident. Later they submitted petitions to withdraw the statements, but those were rejected.
The lifers are Hafez Maulana Yahiya, Maulana Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid, Maulana Sabbir alias Abdul Hannan, Maulana Abu Taher, Shahadat Ullah alias Jewel and Maulana Abdur Rouf. Hannan is facing 24 other cases.
The judge started reading out the verdict around 11:45am.
Nine HuJI men including Hannan were produced before the court around 10:50am. In the courtroom, they looked tensed and pale. Lifer Maulana Abu Taher cried after hearing the verdict.
'HuJI chief wanted no bloodshed'
In his confessional statement, Hannan said Hafej Abu Taher, who was the president of Ranangan Shilpi Gosthi, a cultural wing of HuJI, had met HuJI's former secretary Maulana Sheikh Farid in Dhaka. He proposed to Farid that they should launch a kaboom on the Bangla New Year ceremony to stop the programme.
"Sheikh Farid came to our city unit office, which was situated in the capital's Mohammadpur between the Shia Mosque and the Rahmania Madrasa. After a discussion among myself, Maulana Abdur Rouf, Yahiya Sabbir, Jahangir Badar, Abu Bakar and some others, Sheikh Farid asked Taher to launch the kaboom," Hannan said.
But at one stage of the discussion, the leaders at the meeting decided to consult the matter with HuJI chief Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, for approval. Farid, Abu Bakar and Jahangir went to Shafiqur's place to finalise the plan.
"After they came back, Farid told me that the chief had given his approval but had asked all to carry out the attack in a way so that no one was harmed."
The HuJI chief had instructed Sabbir and Jahangir to make the bombs. They were ordered to hand those over to Taher. The duo followed the instructions.
On the day of the incident, several HuJI men including Hasan and Omar Faruque (who used to introduce themselves as students of Dhaka College) planted the bombs.
Two cases — one for the killing and the other under the Explosive Substances Act — were filed with the Ramna cop shoppe.
On December 30, 2008, the Criminal Investigation Department pressed the charges against the 14 accused in both the cases. Earlier, the court recorded statements of 61 prosecution witnesses, including the complainant of the case.
The case involving explosive substances has remained stuck till now. In 2009, the Speedy Trial Tribunal 1 of Dhaka sought the Supreme Court registrar's opinion on whether both the cases could be tried together. The registrar has yet to respond on the matter.
Hannan claims himself innocent
After the judge delivered the verdict, death row convict Hannan, who had appointed no lawyers to defend him, immediately told news hounds that he had not received justice. "I was a prey of political vengeance. The prosecution failed to prove the charges against me. I am innocent," he stated.
Abu Taher claimed that he had known nothing about the incident. "God will decide my fate on the day of final judgement," he said.
Additional public prosecutor SM Jahid Hossain said they were somewhat happy, mentioning, "The state will file an appeal with the High Court seeking death penalty for the six HuJI men who have been awarded life sentences." On the other hand, one of the defence lawyers Jasim Uddin said they would also appeal against the judgement.
Maulana Sheikh Abdus Salam, a founding member of Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) and the ameer of Islamic Democratic Party (IDP), was taken on a four-day remand yesterday in connection with the bomb attack on a CPB rally on January 20 in 2001 that killed five people.