Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh (HujiB) leader Mufti Hannan sought clemency from the president over his death sentence at 6:10pm on Monday.
Md Monir Hossain, deputy jailer of Kashimpur Central Jail, said: “Mufti Hannan asked for clemency from the president through me.”
Earlier on Monday, Md Delwar Hossain Ripon, an aide of Hannan, also sought presidential clemency regarding the same verdict.
On March 21, the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division released the full text of its verdict confirming the death penalties of Mufti Hannan and his two aides. The culprits were sentenced to death for the assassination attempt on Anwar Choudhury, the then British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, during his visit to Hazrat Shahjalal's shrine in Sylhet city on May 21, 2004. The attack killed three people and severely injured Anwar.
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On December 23, 2008, a Sylhet court sentenced the trio to death and two others to lifetime imprisonment for their roles in the attack. The High Court upheld the sentences in February 2016.
Hannan was also sentenced to death for the 2001 Ramna Batamul bombing, in which 10 people were killed.
The HujiB militant group was formed in 1992 and claims to have carried out at least 14 attacks, killing more than 100 people in the pursuit of establishing Shariah law in Bangladesh.