Executed JMB militant Arif buried in Bagerhat

Executed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative Asadul Islam Arif has been buried in Bagerhat.

Arif, convicted for the 2005 killings of judges in Jhalkathi, was hanged by the Khulna jail authorities at 10:30pm on Sunday.

Prison authorities handed over the body to his wife, which was buried at a village in Bagerhat's Mollahat Upazila around 1:30am, said local police OC Khairul Anam.

“The burial was completed amid strict security after a funeral prayer,” said local Union Council's Member Md Kamruzzaman Molla.

On Nov 14, 2005, senior assistant judges of Jhalakathi, Sohel Ahmed and Jagannath Pandey, were killed in a bomb attack on the microbus that was carrying them to the court.

The attacker Iftekhar Hossain Mamun, a court employee and another person were also injured in the bombing.

Arif and Iftekhar were sentenced to death in the case on May 29, 2006.

Top JMB leaders Shaykh Abdur Rahman, his brother Ataur Rahman Sunny and son-in-law Abdul Awal, Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, and Khaled Saifullah alias Faruq were also sentenced to death in the verdict.

Six of the seven militants, except Arif, were executed on Mar 29, 2007.

On July 10 that year, Arif was arrested from Mymensingh. Later that year, he had challenged the lower court verdict at the High Court and later at the Supreme Court which upheld the death sentence.

His petition to review the death sentence was also scrapped in August this year.