CPB bomb attack: 10 to walk the gallows
Court
A Dhaka court today sentenced 10 to death in a case filed over much-talked bomb attack on a Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) rally in 2001.
Judge Md Robiul Alam of the Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court pronounced the verdict at 10:30am.
The death row convicts are - Mufti Moin Uddin Sheikh, Arif Hasan Sumon, Maulana Sabbir Ahmed, Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid Jahangir Alam Badar, Mohibul Muttakin, Aminul Mursalin, Mufti Abdul Hai, Mufti Shafikur Rahman, and Nur Islam.
They were also fined Tk20,000 each and acquitted two others finding no allegations against them.
Earlier on December 1, last year, the court fixed January 20 after conclusion of arguments from the prosecution and the defence.
During the trial, the court recorded statements of 46 prosecution witnesses including complainant of the case.
Five people were killed and 50 others injured in the bomb attack at a rally of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) at the capital's Paltan Maidan on January 20, 2001.
Later, the then CPB President Monzurul Ahsan Khan filed a case with Paltan Police Station accusing unknown people in connection with the incident.
Investigation Officer CID Inspector Mrinal Kanti Saha submitted two charge sheets to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on November 27 of 2013.
One was filed for killing five people and injuring 50 others while another was filed under the Explosive Substances Act.
According to the charge sheets, the accused carried out the attacks on the pretext that the CPB members were "atheists".
Soon after the blasts, police arrested 12 people but the CID, in its final investigation report submitted on December 17, 2003, cleared the arrestees of the charges as no "correct, impartial and reliable" evidence was found against them.
Later the home ministry ordered a reinvestigation into the incident following an application submitted by the CID in 2005.
Trial of the case filed under the Explosive Substances Act is underway in the same court.
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