A Chittagong court sentenced five people to death in connection with a suicide grenade attack inside a mosque at a Chittagong naval base, six years ago.
The convicts are Former Navy personnel M Sakhawat Hossain, Navy's temporary employees Abdul Mannan, Ramzan Ali, and Babul Rahman Roni, and a civilian named Abdul Gaffar.
Abdul Mannan and Abdul Gaffar are brothers in relation. The rest of the accused, apart from Sakhawat, were present in court when the verdict was announced.
On Wednesday morning, Chittagong Anti-Terrorism Tribunal Judge Abdul Halim announced the verdict, said lawyer Manoranjan Das, from the state side of the tribunal.
He further said that the court fined the five people Tk50,000 in addition to the death penalty under Sections 6(2) and 12 of the Anti-Terrorism Special Act.
Separate charges under the Explosives Act are pending in another court in connection with the same incident. They were sent to jail after the verdict was announced.
In response to the verdict, Manoranjan Das said: "This cruel attack on those who are the vigilant guards of the sea border was by the militant group JMB. The charges leveled against the accused have been proven beyond doubt by the court's decision. This verdict will serve as an example for interacting with militant groups' activities in the country in the future.”
According to information available from court documents, on December 18, 2015, two mosques in the fortified area inside the BNS Issa Khan, a naval base in Chittagong, were bombed 10 minutes apart after Friday prayers.
The blast injured 24 people, including Navy personnel and civilians. The Issa Khan base gates were closed immediately after the incident, and a search was conducted.
Unexploded bombs and a suicide vest (explosive braces for suicide attacks) were discovered in the ground-floor lavatory of a barrack.
On September 3, 2016, nine months after the blast, Naval Provost Marshal Commander M Abu Saeed filed a case at the city's EPZ police station under the Anti-Terrorism and Explosives Act. In this case, former Navy members M Sakhawat Hossain, ballkeeper Abdul Mannan, Ramzan Ali, and Babul Rahman Roni were charged.
After 22 months of investigation, Inspector Muhammad Osman Gani of EPZ police station filed two separate charge sheets in court on October 24, 2017, accusing Abdul Mannan's brother Ghaffar. One was based on the Anti-Terrorism Act, while the other was based on the Explosives Act. In both charge sheets, a total of 24 people were called as witnesses.
According to the charge sheet, the suicide bombing was carried out at the naval base mosque by Raisul Islam Khan Noman alias Nafis alias Fardin, chief coordinator of the banned militant organization Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh's (JMB) Chittagong region.
However, Fardin was dropped from the list of suspects after being killed in a grenade blast on April 3, 2016, in Sherpur, Bogra.
Abdul Mannan detonated two grenades inside the Issa Khan base. He merged with the crowd as the rampage began but he was arrested after the electric switch in his hand was discovered.
Then Abdul Mannan attempted but failed to detonate a suicide grenade, 10 minutes later Ramzan Ali then threw two grenades at another mosque in Isha Khan Ghat. He was also later arrested.
The other accused in the case, Bablu Rahman, was nabbed by RAB on October 30, 2017, in Jhenaidah.
In view of the police application, the court ordered the arrest of Abdul Ghaffar, who is currently jailed in another case. M Sakhawat Hossain, the other accused, a former Navy official, fled immediately after the incident.
According to the charge sheet, the accused admitted during interrogation that they did not follow the country's laws. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, and other law enforcement agencies are encountering difficulties in their work. Mannan and Ramzan carried out the attack as canteen boys at the BNS Shaheed Moazzam in Kaptai with the help of Sakhawat Hussain, a former Navy member. Ramzan obtained this job by showing the eighth class pass despite having a diploma in textile engineering.
Mannan, Ramzan, and Bablu concealed their identities and educational qualifications to work as temporary civil servants (canteen boy, batman, and ballkeeper) at Kaptai BNS Shaheed Moazzam Base from 2012-13.
They acted on the advice of JMB Chittagong Chief Fardin. When Bablu was asked for the chairman's certificate at the BNS Shaheed Moazzam base, he fled for fear of police verification.
Fardin gave Mannan and Ramzan bagged pipe bombs and grenades the day before the attack. They took those to the base and kept those in their rooms, the charge sheet said.
The accused's lawyer, Advocate Jalal Uddin, expressed his dissatisfaction with the verdict and said: "The case was filed a year after the incident. However, no explanation was provided by the state. No one was arrested on the spot. Despite being arrested later, none of them have made a statement under Section 164. No witnesses identified them. We will file an appeal with the High Court.”