Death penalty for Mufti Hannan upheld

The Appellate division of Supreme Court has upheld death sentence for Mufti Abdul Hannan, chief of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad in a case filed for the 2004 grenade attack on the then UK envoy in Bangladesh.

A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha gave the verdict on Sunday rejecting Hannan’s appeal to review his death penalty.

The High Court on December 7 last year upheld death penalty of three Huji militants- Mufti Abdul Hannan, Sharif Shahedul Alam Bipul and Delwar Hossain alias Ripon - in the case filed for the 2004 grenade attack on Anwar Chowdhury, UK High Commissioner to Bangladesh.

On January 17 this year, the apex court released the full text of its verdict in the case.

In 2004, former UK High Commissioner to Bangladesh Anwar Chowdhury was hurt along with around 70 others and three were killed in the attack at the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) in Sylhet.

Hannan also carries a death sentence for the 2001 Ramna Batamul bombing which killed ten people.

Since its formation in 1992, the militant outfit has carried out at least 14 attacks, killing more than 100 people in the pursuit of establishing Shariah Law in Bangladesh.