BNP leaders Babar, Ariful indicted for attempted murder of Suranjit Sen

A speedy trial tribunal in Sylhet on Thursday framed charges against former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, and Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haque and eight others in a case filed over an attempted murder of former railways minister Suranjit Sengupta.
 
On the day, the tribunal also framed charges in two other cases filed over a grenade attack on a rally of Suranjit Sengupta and the murder of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria, under the Explosive Substances Act.
 
Former state minister Babar, Sylhet Mayor Ariful and former Habiganj Municipal mayor Golam Kibria Gaus were indicted in the two cases involving Suranjit Sengupta.
 
Babar and Ariful were also indicted in Kibria murder case.
 
Sorwar Hossain Abdal, public prosecutor at the Sylhet speedy trial tribunal court, told The Business Standard on Thursday. Trials of the three cases started today through filing the charge sheets, he added.
 
Earlier on the day, Babar along with other Kibria murder case accused who have been detained in jail were taken to the Sylhet court amid strict security. Mayor Ariful and GK Gaus, who are on bail, were also among the 11 accused who appeared before the court on the day.
 
On 21 June 2004, a political rally attended by Suranjit Sungupta in Dirai Bazar came under a grenade attack. The attack left one Jubo League leader dead and 29 others injured.
 
Sub-Inspector Helal Uddin later filed a case with Dirai police station in connection with the attack.
 
On 27 January 2005, former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and his nephew among five others were killed after they came under a grenade attack while returning from a Awami League rally at Badyer Bazar in Habiganj Sadar upazila. Some 70 people sustained injury in the attack.
 
Later, local Awami League leader Advocate Md Abdul Mazid Khan filed a case with Sadar police station over the attack, under the Explosive Substance Act. Ten people were accused in the case. The number of accused increased to 36 following an investigation in 2011.

Later, in the third phase, BNP leaders Babar, Haris Chowdhury and Sylhet City Mayor Ariful Haque were included in the case.

Of the accused, two have died in the meantime.