Two members of the banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) have been sentenced to different prison terms in a case filed over the bomb blasts at Hussaini Dalan in old Dhaka in 2015.
Judge Md Majibur Rahman of the Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal in Dhaka handed down the verdict on Tuesday in a packed courtroom in the presence of the two convicts amid tight security.
Mohammad Arman was jailed for 10 years and Kabir Hossain alias Rashed for seven years.
The two convicts were also fined Tk10,000 each, failure to pay which would result in another six months’ rigorous imprisonment.
The court, however, acquitted six other JMB members of the charges as the prosecution failed to prove the allegations against them in the case. They are Rubel Islam, Abu Sayeed, Hafez Ahsan Ullah Masud, Shah Jalal, Omar Faruk and Chan Miah.
Law Enforcement Officers are seen on the Hussaini Dalan premises following an attack there in October 2015 Dhaka TribuneCourt finds IO’s negligence
In the verdict, the judge rebuked the investigation officer (IO) of the case for not including the names of the mastermind and planners of the attack in the charge sheet.
The court failed to bring the culprits to book due to the mistake of the IO, said the judge.
The judge said that IO Shafiuddin Sheikh made a grave mistake by including four accused – Chan Mia, Omar Faruk, Hafeez Ahsan Ullah and Shahjalal Mia – in the case without any evidence. They were harassed and suffered physically, financially and mentally due to the negligence of the IO.
The court observed that Albani and Noman, the planners and masterminds of the attack, and Hiron, who attacked the Hussaini Dalan, were not named as accused in the case due to the IO not doing a thorough investigation.
The IO has shown gross negligence, said the court, adding that as a result, the masterminds, executors and assailants of the Hussaini Dalan had been left out of the purview of the law.
A total of 31 out of 46 prosecution witnesses testified before the court in the case.
On May 31, 2017, the trial commenced through a framing of charges against the eight accused in the case.
What happened on that day?
According to the case document, on October 23, 2015, two persons, including a 15-year-old schoolboy named Sanju, were killed and over 100 others were injured when militants launched a bombs attack on a crowd at the Shia Muslim community’s headquarters – Hussaini Dalan – in the old part of Dhaka city.
Shia Muslims had been gathering near the building to bring out a Tazia procession to mark holy Ashura the next day. Ashura marks the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA), the grandson of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH). Shias have been observing the day for centuries.
The next day, Jalal Uddin, a sub-inspector of Chawlkbazar Police Station, filed a case against some unidentified people under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The blasts targeting the Tazia procession were the third attack in the country claimed by Islamic State in the space of a month. The bombings came just weeks after an Italian aid worker and a Japanese national had been shot dead in attacks claimed by the militant group.
Back then, detectives said a new faction of the JMB had expressed allegiance to the IS and taken credit for 29 attacks since September 2015.
Three leaders of the group were killed in two separate gunfights with law enforcers in December 2015 and January 2016.
Police claimed that the three had been involved in the Hussaini Dalan attack. They are Al-Bani alias Hozza Bhai alias Member Bhai alias Shahadat alias Mahfuz, Abdullah Al Noman alias Abdullah and Kamal alias Hiron.
On October 16, 2016, Mohammad Shafi Uddin Sheikh, an inspector of Detective Branch (DB) of police, submitted the charge sheet against ten JMB men to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court.
The trial of two under-aged accused – Masud Rana Suman and Zahid Hasan Rana – is going on at a Juvenile Court in Dhaka.
