A trial court judge has observed that the meritorious young generation is going astray as they are loosing morality nowadays. As a result, they are being motivated by others towards the wrong path.
Dhaka’s Special Trial Tribunal 3 Judge Sayeed Ahmed made the observation while delivering judgement in secular blogger Ahmed Rajeeb Haider murder case. Seven expelled students of North South University and a religious scholar were given punishment on various terms in the case.
The judge urged parents, students, law enforcers and people from all walks of life to prevent a situation that may create chaos in the society.
“Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani used to deliver provoking sermons at mosques. Young people mainly the university students listened to him and were encouraged to kill [atheists],” he said.
“There should be a limit in delivering sermons. The sermons should not encourage anyone to take arms in hand on a trivial matter. The young people should know they have no right to react heavily. We should be driven by our conscience,” he said.
The judge also questioned whether someone could be killed for his writings. He observed that a killing plan cannot be hatched only for writing personal opinion.
“Our meritorious sons are going astray. Once one of our judges was a member of banned militant outfit Hizb-ut Tahrir. When asked, he could not explain why he was following the path. He was later arrested by the law enforcers. Once upon a time, he was a bright judge,” he said.
He also urged people not to write anything that can hurt others’ feelings.
“I have heard that bloggers write such contents which are objectionable. Actually, we all have lost patience – even the law enforcers. They are taking law in their own hand by killing people in the name of crossfire. Be patient. Nobody is entitled to take law in own hand,” he said.
The court also said that it had not found any direct involvement of Ansarullah as an organisation in the murder.
About the lenient punishment of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Rahmani, the court said: “Many of you can raise question why Rahmani has been awarded five years’ imprisonment. It is because there was no proof of his direct involvement in the killing.”
Criticising the investigators, he said that the investigators told the court about some CD’s of Rahmani’s sermons but they had not submitted those before it. They presented some inciting books but those were written after the murder.
The court also opined that the IO should have interrogated Tanjila, a female friend of Rajeeb, who was with him on that day. He was murdered while returning home after seeing her.
Rajeeb’s father rejected the verdict. Talking to the reporters, Md Nazim Uddin said that the verdict was not appropriate.
“This killing was done by Jamaat-Shibir men. Rana was a Chhatra Shibir leader. He encouraged others to kill Rajeeb. The mystery will be solved if the police can arrest him,” he said, adding that he would challenge the judgement.
On the other hand, one of the defence lawyers Faruk Ahmed said: “The punishment has been awarded based on the confessional statements. But we clearly said that the statements were forcefully taken by the law enforcers upon torture. We will move the High Court against the verdict.”