GreenWatch Dhaka Report
Dhaka, March 22 – Mufti Abdul Hannan, chief of Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (Huji) who has been handed down deathn penalty in a grenade attack case will seek presidential mercy, reliable sources have informed quoting a senior jailor of the Kashiumpur Jail, about 15 kilometres north of capital Dhaka.The death penalty was awarded in a case filed in connection with the grenade attack on the then British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Anwar Choudhury, in 2004, in the Sylhet shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA). Te then British envoy Anwar Choudhury and 51 others were injured while three, including two police officials, were killed in the grenade attack.
Mutfi Hannan is a principal accused in a number of other cases including the one of grenade attack at an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21 the same year. A total of 23 people were killed and at least 200 others injured in the attack on the rally in which AL chief Sheikh Hasina was present among others.
Our Special Correspondent reported: The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday released the full text of its verdict on the review petition of Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HuJi) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his two associates challenging their death sentences.
The Appellate Division upheld the death penalty of three activists of banned militant outfit HuJi on Sunday in a case filed in connection with the grenade attack on the then British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Anwar Choudhury, in 2004. The verdict text will now be sent to the High Court and then to the jail via judicial court in order to execute the verdict.
On 11 February last year, a High Court bench, comprising justice M Enayetur Rahim and justice Amir Hossain, delivered the verdict upholding the death sentence for three accused- Mufti Abdul Hannan, Sharif Shahedul Alam and Delwar Hossain and life-term imprisonment of two others- Mufti Hannan’s brother Mohibullah and Mufti Moinuddin as handed down by the subordinate court.
British envoy Anwar Choudhury and 51 others were injured while three, including two police officials, were killed in the grenade attack at Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) shrine in Sylhet on 21 May 2004.
