Hannan, 12 other Huji men indicted

A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against 13 members of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji), including its top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, in connection with the CPB rally bomb blast case in 2001. 

Two cases were filed over the incident. One was filed for killing five people and injuring 50 others and the other was lodged for blasting bombs under the explosive substances act.

Mufti Hannan and five others, now in custody, pleaded not guilty and appealed for justice after KM Imrul Kayes, judge of the Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka, read out the charges to them.

The court also fixed October 23 for starting trial of the case.

On August 21 this year, the same court framed charges against the same accused in a murder case lodged in connection with the bomb attack carried out on the rally of the Communist Party of Bangladesh in the capital's Paltan Maidan on January 21, 2001.

The trial will begin on September 14.

On November 27 last year, the Criminal Investigation Department had pressed charges against them in the two cases.

Of the accused, Mufti Hannan, Mufti Mainuddin Sheikh, Arif Hassan Sumon, Maulana Sabbir Ahmed, Maulana Shawkat Osman and Md Moshiur Rahman are currently behind bars, while Mufti Abdul Hai, Shafiqur Rahman, Jahangir Alam Badar, Md Nur Islam, Mohibul Mustakin, Anisur Rahman and Rafiqul Alam Miraj have been absconding ever since the incident happened.

According to the charge sheets, the accused made the attack on the pretext that the CPB members in the rally 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.

The home ministry then ordered a reinvestigation into the incident following an application submitted by the CID in 2005.