Apex court cancels HC bail to suspect

The Supreme Court yesterday cancelled a High Court order that granted bail to alleged militant Abul Khair Rashid Ahammed in blogger Ananta Bijoy Das killing case.

The Appellate Division of the SC also ordered Abul Khair to surrender before the lower court concerned in a week.

It stayed another HC order that granted bail to alleged militant Golam Sarwar Rahat in a case filed for snatching away three convicted militants from a prison van in Mymensingh in 2014.

An apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, passed the orders after hearing two petitions filed by the government challenging the HC orders, Deputy Attorney General Khondker Diliruzzaman told The Daily Star.

He also said Abul Khair earlier got released from jail after the HC granted him bail, and Golam Sarwar, who is now in jail, cannot get released following the SC's stay order.

Abul Khair got bail from the HC on April 19 and Golam Sarwar on February 28.

Blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death by a group of masked men in Sylhet city on May 12 last year.

On February 23, 2014, an armed gang ambushed a prison van and snatched away three convicted Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants -- two of them on death row -- in Trishal of Mymensingh.

A police constable was killed as the gang of 10-15, all masked, opened fire and hurled crude bombs at the prison van.

The attack on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway took place when the van carrying the three was going to Mymensingh to produce them before a court in a sedition case.

The convicts are Rakib Hasan Russell alias Hafez Mahmud, Salauddin Ahmed alias Salehin and Zahidul Islam alias “Boma” Mizan. Rakib and Salauddin were sentenced to death and “Boma” Mizan to 37 years in prison in different cases.