Preparations underway to execute Huji militant chief Mufti Hannan: Home minister

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan today said preparations are underway to execute the death row convict Mufti Hannan, chief of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul- Jihad al-Islam Bangladesh (Huji).

Preparations are underway to execute the death penalty of Mufti Hannan and his two associates following the jail code as their petitions seeking presidential clemency have already been rejected, he said responding to queries from journalists at his secretariat in Dhaka.

The minister, however, did not give any details about the time and place of the executions.

Mufti Hannan and his associate Sharif Shahedul Bipul have been kept at Kashimpur High Security Prison, Gazipur while Delwar Hossain alias Ripon, the other accomplice, at Sylhet Central Jail.

They filed petitions on March 27 to the president seeking clemency after the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court rejected their petition to review of their death penalty in connection with a case for carrying out grenade attack on the then UK Ambassador Anwar Chowdhury at Shahjalal Shrine in Sylhet in 2004.

Meanwhile, the jail authorities said they are yet to receive any order to execute the death penalty of Mufti Hannan and his two accomplices.

The grenade attack was launched at Shahjalal Shrine on May 21 in 2004, in which three people, assistant sub inspector of police Kamal Uddin and constable Rubel Ahmed, were killed and 40 others, including the then British envoy Anwar Chowdhury suffered splinter injuries.

A murder case was lodged in this connection.

Earlier on December 7 last, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty of the trio. It also upheld the High Court order that sentenced life in prison to Mohibullah and Abu Zandal as they did not file any petition against the verdict.

The death-row convicts filed petitions seeking review of their death penalties after the Supreme Court released the full verdict in the case. The Supreme Court on March 19 rejected their petition for which their death penalty were upheld at the final verdict.

On December 23, 2008, the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal sentenced Mufti Hannan, Bipul and Ripon to death and sentenced Muhibullah alias Muhibur Rahman alias Ovi and Mufti Main Uddin alias Abu Zandal to life in prison in the 2004 grenade attack case on the UK envoy.