Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his two associates Delwar Alias Ripon and Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul were hanged at 10am on Wednesday for their grenade attack on former British envoy Anwar Choudhury in Sylhet in 2004.
Hannan and Sharif were executed at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur and Delwar was hanged in Sylhet Central Jail.
The Supreme Court on March 19 this year upheld the death penalties for the Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami leaders and later rejected their pleas to review the decision, saying they cannot be acquitted for pre-mediated crimes.
The three sought president’s pardon as a last-ditch effort to save their necks. The jail authorities started preparing the gallows after the president rejected their mercy petitions.
Anwar Choudhury, Sylhet deputy commissioner Abul Hossain and 36 bystanders were injured while assistant police sub-inspector Kamal Uddin and two bystanders were killed in the attack.
According the Criminal Investigation Department, Mufti Hannan was either named or convicted in at least 19 cases across the country.
Hannan grabbed the headlines after his reported ‘abortive attempt’ to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her birth place Gopalganj in July 2000.