Pro BNP-Jamaat lawyers protest verdict

Protests by lawyers close to the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami took place in the Chittagong court premises after the verdict on the 2004 arms haul in the port city.

Chittagong Metropolitan Sessions Judge and Special Tribunal-1 judge SM Mojibur Rahman ordered death for 14 including Jamaat-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, former State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar in one of the cases filed over the arms haul.

In the other case, the court sentenced life in prison for the 14.

Lawyers supporting the two Opposition parties took out a procession after the verdict in the court premises.

A brief rally followed.

Police had seized 10 trucks of weapons and ammunition from the state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd (CUFL) jetty in Chittagong while being offloaded from trawlers on the early hours of April 2, 2004.

Around 1,500 boxes containing submachine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, submachine carbines, Chinese pistols, rocket shells and launchers, hand grenades and bullets were seized.

Later that day, Karnafuli Police Station’s (at that time) OC Ahadur Rahman filed the two separate cases.

The verdict on the cases came on Thursday, nearly 10 years after the seizure of the huge cache of arms that took the nation by surprise and had caused a furore in Bangladesh.