The victims' families are enduring an unending wait for justice as the two cases filed over the Ramna Batamul bomb blast are yet to be disposed of, though 22 years have elapsed since the horrific attack took place to foil the Bangla New Year festivities in 2001.
The Bangladesh chapter of the Pakistan-based militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJi-B) carried out the attack during the Chhayanaut program, as it considered the celebrations anti-Islam. Ten people were killed and over 50 others were injured in the blast.
Almost nine years have elapsed since the delivery of the verdict in the murder case, but the hearing on death references and jail appeals of the convicts are yet to be disposed of by the apex court.
After the incident, two cases -- one under the Penal Code for murder and the other under the Explosive Substances Act -- were filed with Ramna police station.
The murder case has been pending with the High Court for the last nine years, while the other is still under trial in a Dhaka court.
According to court sources, on June 23, 2014, around 13 years after the incident, a Dhaka court sentenced eight militants, including HuJi-B leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, to death and six others to life imprisonment in the murder case.
Those who received death sentences were Mufti Hannan, Arif Hasan Sumon, Maulana Akbar Hossain, MaulanaTajuddin, Hafez Jahangir AlamBadal, Maulana Abu Bakar, Mufti Shafikur Rahman and Mufti Abdul Hai.
The six others are Shahadat Ullah Jewel, Hafez Maulana Abu Taher, Maulana AbdurRauf, Maulana Sabbir Hossain, Maulana Yahiya, and Maulana Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid.
Of the accused, Mufti Hannan was executed in 2017 in another case, and five convicts -- Sumon, Jewel, Abu Taher, Rauf, and Akbar -- are behind bars while others are still on the run.
The case documents and judgment reached the High Court as death references seven days after the lower court had delivered the verdict.
Sluggish proceedings
High Court sources said eight of the condemned men filed separate appeals with the court challenging the trial court verdict.
The hearing in the case started on January 17, 2017, before a bench of the HC, but it was dropped from the cause list due to the reformation of the bench later. Three benches of the High Court have returned the case.
The case file is now in the death reference wing of the High Court. After the ongoing vacation of the Supreme Court, the matter will be presented to the Chief Justice for selecting a new bench for hearing.
Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir, a defence lawyer, said the death reference and appeal of the accused were listed in the three benches of the High Court. But the hearing was not completed in any of the benches.
He said that in 2021, the case was on a dual bench for a hearing. The senior judge of the bench was appointed as a judge of the Appellate Division. Later the bench was reconstituted. And then there was no further hearing.
“If the chief justice appoints a new bench, the hearing will begin in the case,” he told Dhaka Tribune.
Besides, the case filed under the Explosive Substances Act, pending with Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 for a long time, was shifted to the Dhaka Seventh Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judges Court in July last year.
“The trial is nearing an end in the blast case. We hope that the court will deliver the verdict on the completion of the arguments soon,” Additional Public Prosecutor Md Mahbubur Rahman told Dhaka Tribune.
He said there are a total of 14 accused in the case. Of them, seven are in jail, four accused are on the run and three others have died.
Dhaka court sources said a total of 54 out of the 84 prosecution witnesses testified in the case. The court has fixed May 17 for the next hearing in the case.
