Home ›› 14 Apr 2023 ›› News
The victim’s families are enduring an unending wait for justice as the two cases filed over the Ramna Batamul bomb blast are yet to be disposed of, although 22 years have already elapsed since the incident took place in 2001.
The banned militant outfit, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJi), launched the attack on the Chhayanaut programme organised at Ramna in the capital marking the Bangla New Year on April 14, 2001. Ten people were killed and over 50 others injured in the blast. After the incident, two cases--one under the Penal Code for murder and another under the Explosive Substances Act--were filed with Ramna Police Station.
The murder case has been pending with the High Court for the last nine years while the case, filed under the explosive substances act, is pending with a Dhaka court. According to court sources, on June 23 in 2014, 13 years after the incident, a Dhaka court sentenced eight militants, including Mufti Hannan, to death and six others to life imprisonment in the murder case.
Those who received death sentence are: Mufti Abdul Hannan, Arif Hasan Sumon, Maulana Akbar Hossain, Maulana Tajuddin, Hafez Jahangir Alam Badal, Maulana Abu Bakar, Mufti Shafikur Rahman, and Mufti Abdul Hai.
The six convicts are: Shahadat Ullah Jewel, Hafez Maulana Abu Taher, Maulana Abdur Rauf, Maulana Sabbir Hossain, Maulana Yahiya, and Maulana Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid.
Of the accused, Mufti Hannan was executed in 2017 in another case and five convicts--Sumon, Jewel, Abu Taher, Rauf, and Akbar--are put behind bars while others are still on the run.
The case documents and judgment reached the High Court as death references seven days after the lower court had delivered the verdict.
Almost nine years have passed since the delivery of the verdict, but the case is still pending with the High Court as the hearing on death references and jail appeals of the convicts are yet to be disposed of.
High Court sources said eight of the condemned convicts filed separate appeals with the court, challenging the trial court verdict.
The hearing in the case started at a bench of the HC on January 17 in 2017, but it was dropped from the cause list due to the reconstitution of the bench later. Three benches of the High Court have returned the case. The case file is now at the death reference wing of the High Court. After the ongoing vacation of the Supreme Court, the matter will be placed to the Chief Justice for setting a new bench for hearing.
Deputy Attorney General Shaheen Ahmed Khan said that the hearing will start when the Chief Justice will set a bench for hearing in the case.
Defence lawyer Mohammad Shishir Monir said the death reference and appeal of the accused were listed in the three benches of the High Court. But the hearing was not completed in any of the benches.
He said the last time the case was in a dual bench for hearing in 2021. The senior judge of the bench was appointed to Appellate Division as a judge. Later, the bench was reconstituted. Then no further hearing was held. Now if the Chief Justice appoints a new bench, the hearing in the case will begin.
Besides, the case filed under the explosive substances act has been pending with Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 for a long time but it was shifted to Dhaka 7th additional metropolitan sessions judges court in July last year.
Dhaka court sources said a total of 54 out of 84 prosecution witnesses testified in the case. The court fixed May 17 for the next hearing in the case.
There are a total of 14 accused in the blast case. Of them, seven are in jail, four others are on the run, and three others died.
After the deadly bomb attack, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police found that militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJi) was involved in the attack.
The CID submitted a charge-sheet in both the cases against 14 militants, including HuJi chief Mufti Hannan, on November 30, 2008.
Two accused Mufti Hannan and Akbar confessed that they carried out the grisly attack on the Pahela Baishakh celebrations as celebrating the Bangla New Year is anti-Islamic.
