Mufti Hannan, two others hanged [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Mufti Hannan, two others hanged

Local April 13, 2017

Banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan Munshi and two operatives Sharif Shahedul Alam Bipul and Delwar Hossain Ripon hanged in prisons in Gazipur and Sylhet Wednesday night for killing three people and injuring former British high commissioner in Bangladesh and dozen others in Sylhet 13 years ago.
Hannan and Sharif were executed at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur and Delwar was hanged in Sylhet Central Jail at about 10:00pm, said inspector general of prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin.
These were the first executions of the extremists in Bangladesh since Awami League-led government assumed power in 2009.
In March 2007, the then military-backed interim
regime executed six extremists – outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh top leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his deputy Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai – for killing two judges and masterminding a wave of deadly bombings.
All legal procedures were followed for the executions, said home minister Assaduzzaman Khan few hours before the executions.
Additional police and members of the Rapid Action Battalion patrolled the main streets of Gazipur and Sylhet Wednesday night for the executions.
The authorities suspended traffic within about 1km radius and shut all shops in front of the main gate of the Kashimpur jail.
Before the executions, ambulances were brought to jail premises while Kashimpur jail complex mosque imam Helal Uddin administrated final prayers to Hannan and Sharif, officials said.
Prisons physician Mizanur Rahman in Gazipur examined their physical conditions twice on the day.
All the three convicts sought presidential clemencies on March 29 which were rejected by the president and the rejection order reached the prisons on Monday.
According to the case, the convicts threw several grenades aiming at the entrance of Hazrat Shahjalal shrine in Sylhet city on May 21, 2004 allegedly with the intention
to kill the then UK high commissioner to Bangladesh Anwar Choudhury when he was about to enter the shrine.
Anwar Choudhury, Sylhet deputy commissioner Abul Hossain and 36 bystanders were injured while assistant police sub-inspector Kamal Uddin and two bystanders were killed in the attack.
According the Criminal Investigation Department, Mufti Hannan was either named or convicted in at least 19 cases across the country.
Hannan grabbed the headlines after his reported ‘abortive attempt’ to kill prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her birth place Gopalganj in July 2000.
He had fought in Afghan war against Soviet Union. He was trained in Peshwar in Pakistan and spent six months in a seminary in Uttar Pradesh in India. He was arrested on October 1, 2005.
Police investigators said that Hannan and his outfit were behind separate attacks including that attacks on Udichi Cultural event in Jessore in 1999, Ramna Batamul during Pahela Baishakh (Bangla New Year) celebrations on April 14, 2001, and Communist Party of Bangladesh rally in Dhaka 2001.
Hannan and Sharif, along with 48 others, including many leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, faced the charge of grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 at Bangbandhu Avenue that killed 24 people, including Awami League leader Ivy Rahman and left injured dozens including Hasina, also the AL president, when she was in opposition.
Based on his reported confession, the Criminal Investigation Department implicated BNP leader Tarique Rahman, also the eldest son of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.
On June 23, 2014, a sessions court in Dhaka sentenced Hannan and seven others to death and six others to life terms for a series grenade attacks during Pahela Baisakh celebrations at Ramna Batamul in 2001. The death reference is pending with the High Court.
Rests of the cases were pending with different courts.
Family members met Hannan at High Security part of the Central Jail Wednesday morning.
The meeting took place few hours after the prison authorities on Tuesday called the family for the final meeting.
Hannan’s elder brother Aliuzzaman Munshi, Hannan’s wife Jakia Parvin Ruma and their daughters Nishi Khanam and Nazrin Khanam entered the high security jail at about 7:00am, senior jail superintendent Md Mizanur Rahman said. They talked for 45 minutes from around 8:15am, he added.
Coming out of the jail, Jakia told reporters that Hannan was physically well. He was sentenced to death in a ‘false case and was denied of justice,’ she added.
The family said that Mufti Hannan wanted to talk to his mother.
None from the family of Sharif, however, came to meet him on Wednesday, New Age correspondent in Gazipur reported.
Delwar Hossain Ripon was hanged in Sylhet Central Jail.
Ripon’s father Abu Yusuf and mother Azizunnesa met him Tuesday noon, said senior jail superintendent Md Sagir Miah.
On March 19, the Appellate Division rejected the petitions of Hannan and the two seeking review of its verdict that had upheld High Court judgement giving judicial confirmation to their death sentences.
On February 11, 2017, the High Court upheld the trial court’s verdict sentencing the three to death and the outfit operatives Mohibullah alias Mofizur, also Hannan’s brother, and Mufti Moinuddin alias Abu Jandal to imprisonment for life term for the Sylhet grenade attack.