10 militants get death for bomb attack on CPB rally

A Dhaka court has sentenced ten militants to death in a case lodged over bomb attack on a rally of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) in 2001 in the capital that killed five people.

Dhaka Additional 3rd Metropolitan Sessions Judge Robiul Alam passed the order on Monday. 

The death-row convicts are - Mufti Moin Uddin Sheikh, Arif Hasan Sumon, Maulana Sabbir Ahmed, Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid, Jahangir Alam Badar, Mohibul Muttakin, Aminul Mursalin, Mufti Abdul Hai, Mufti Shafikur Rahman, and Nur Islam.

Moin Uddin, Sumon, Sabbir and Shawkat are in police custody while the rest are on the run.

The court also fined them Tk 20,000 each.

Besides, it acquitted Md Mashiur Rahman and Rafikul Islam Miraj. Another accused in the case, Mufti Abdul Hannan, was executed in a separate case.

Earlier on December 1 last year, the same court fixed January 20 to pronounce its judgement in the case

The court set the date after examining 46 witnesses on different occasions. 

Five people were killed and 20 others injured in the attack on CPB rally in capital’s Paltan Maidan on January 20, 2001.

Then CPB president Manzurul Ahsan Khan filed the case with Motijheel Police Station. But police had given final report in 2003, saying it did not find any credible evidences in the case.

Police in 2005 reopened the case and on November 26, 2013, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) gave charge sheets against 13 activists of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) in two cases lodged over murder and explosives substances acts.

The court on September 4, 2014, framed charges in the cases.