A Dhaka court has sentenced 17 JMB militants to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in a case filed in connection with the series bomb blasts on the Gazipur DC office premises on August 17, 2005.
Judge Abdur Rahman Sarder of Speedy Trial Tribunal 4 delivered the verdict in a packed courtroom yesterday.
The tribunal also fined them Tk10,000 each; if they default, they would have to suffer one more year of rigorous imprisonment.
The tribunal also acquitted four other JMB men – Md Hasan (fugitive), Md Mahbubur Rahman alias Mahbub, Md Nurul Islam and Md Tayabur Rahman – as charges brought against them could not be proved.
The sentenced convicts are: Md Rokanuzzaman alias Rokan, Md Mamunur Rashid, Arifur Rahman, Md Nijam, Asad alias Jahangir, Durul Huda, Md Mahbubul Alam, Md Jahirul Islam, Md Adam, Md Kawser, Omar Faruq, Md Rasel, Abdul Quafi, MA Siddique Bablu, Rana alias Abdul Sattar, Masum alias Abdul Rauf and Raihan alias Obayed.
Of them Rasel, Quafi, Bablu, Masum, Rana, and Raihan were tried in absentia.
According to the case statement, on August 17, 2005, banned Islamist militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) simultaneously exploded bombs in eight places in Gazipur’s Joydebpur, including in front of the additional deputy commissioner’s (tax) office.
Sub-Inspector Md Mahfuzur Rahman filed a case with Joydebpur police station accusing unknown accused on the same day.
The investigation officer of the case, the then SI Gazi Ruhul Amin of Joydebpur police station, pressed a charge sheet before a court on October 12, 2005 bringing allegations against 23 JMB members.
Later in 2012, the Home Ministry gave its approval to shift the case to the Speedy Trial Tribunal 4 for a quick resolution.
The same tribunal on February 19, 2012, indicted 21 of the charge-sheeted JMB men as two others – JMB chief Shaykh Abdur Rahman and his brother Ataur Rahman Sani – had already been hanged in another case.
Before delivering a verdict, the tribunal examined 50 out of 85 prosecution witnesses.