High Court starts hearing death references, appeals of convicts in 2005 Gazipur Bar bombing case

The High Court has begun hearing death references and appeals of 10 JMB operatives convicted for a suicide bombing on Gazipur Bar Association that killed eight people, including four lawyers, 11 years ago.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 13 July 2016, 12:15 PM
Updated : 13 July 2016, 01:40 PM

The bench of justices M Enayetur Rahim and JBM Hassan held the first hearing on Wednesday.

Deputy Attorney General Sheikh AKM Moniruzzaman Kabir and Assistant Attorney General Shahidul Islam Khan represented the State.

Khan later told bdnews24.com they read out the case’s first information report, chargesheet and statements of witnesses from the 1,166-page paperbook (case details) on the first day.

The hearing is scheduled to resume on Thursday, he added.

According to case details, JMB activist Azad - also known by many aliases like Zia, Nazir and Nahid – in a suicide attack had exploded two bombs at Hall-2 of Gazipur District Bar Association office on Nov 29, 2005, after entering the building in a lawyer's gown.

The blasts had killed the association’s General Secretary Amzad Hossain, lawyers Golam Faruque, Nurul Huda and Anwarul Azim and four of their clients.

Joydebpur police SI Md Alamgir Hossain later that day started the case against a number of JMB leaders including Shaykh Abdur Rahman and Ataur Rahman Sani, the suicide attacker and his accomplices.

Two years later, on Jul 4, 2008, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) submitted the chargesheet accusing 15 JMB leaders and operatives.

But the names of Azad and his accomplice Molla Omar Shakil, Rahman, Sani and another top JMB leader Khaled Saifullah were dropped as all of them were dead by the time formal charges were brought against them in the case.

Six JMB leaders, including Rahman, Sani and Saifullah, accused of abetment in the bombing, were hanged on Mar 29, 2007 for murdering two judges.

A Gazipur court framed charges against the 10 remaining JMB members accused in the case on Apr 24, 2011.

On Oct 3, the case was transferred to the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 in Dhaka.

On Feb 8, 2012, corrected charges were framed against eight of the accused. The court had recorded statements of 70 witnesses of the State and three defence witnesses during the trial.

Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 Judge Mohammad Motahar Hossain on Jun 20, 2013, delivered the verdict giving the death sentence to 10 JMB operatives.

The 10 convicts are Enayet Ullah, Arifur Rahman, Masidul Islam Masud, Saidur Rahman Munsi, Abdullah Al Sohain, Nizam Uddin Reza, Taibur Rahman Hassan, Md Ashraful Islam, Md Shafiullah Tarek and Adnan Sami Jahangir.

After the verdict, the death references of the convicts were sent to the High Court for approval the same year. Four of the convicts had challenged the death penalty, while all 10 filed jail appeals.

Assistant Attorney General Shahidul Islam Khan on Wednesday said the chief justice had sent the case to the High Court on May 5 this year.

He said all the 10 convicts were arrested between 2005 and 2006, and are currently behind bars.