Got justice, job not yet over

A person rejoices waving victory sign in a gathering on Bangabandhu Avenue after the historic verdict was announced yesterday. Photo: Shafiqul Alam

The state counsels for Bangabandhu murder case, and its complainant yesterday described as 'historic and the best' the Supreme Court verdict that upheld the death penalty of 12 convicts in this case.
The nation has become free from the stigma through the verdict. It will enable to establish rule of law in the country, and none will dare to commit such brutal offence in future, they said.
They expressed this reaction at a press briefing at the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium after the Appellate Division pronounced the verdict.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday told The Daily Star that if the condemned convicts in the Bangabandhu murder case file any review petition with the Supreme Court against this verdict, the government would challenge that petition.
He said the apex court's verdict of the murder case will be considered as historic and the best judgment in the history of the judiciary.
"Although we have got justice, our duty has not been finished. Now our duty is to bring the absconding killers of Bangabandhu and his family members back to the country," the attorney general said, adding that the Bangladeshi expatriates should assist the government to nab the killers.
The killers of father of the nation have got all kinds of facilities to defend themselves in this case, although they have applied all the steps to obstruct the trial of the most heinous and brutal killing in the world, he said.
They had even challenged the cancellation of the black Indemnity Ordinance which notorious plotter of the killing Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed had promulgated so that the trial cannot be held, he said.
He alleged that the subsequent governments of Ziaur Rahman, HM Ershad and Khaleda Zia had kept the Indemnity Ordinance valid on the same purpose of rewarding the killers.
He hoped that the killers would not get any shelter or facility in this country in future.
The attorney general termed Abdul Kahar Akand, who conducted investigation into this case, as the best investigation officer in this century, saying that he conducted the investigation impartially.
He also thanked AFM Muhitul Islam, complainant of the case, for lodging a complaint in connection with the killing of Bangabandhu and his family members.
Chief State Counsel for this case Anisul Huq said they have got justice from the Supreme Court for the brutal killing of father of the nation.
"We have begged justice for the killing of the Father of the Nation and his family, and the nation has been waiting for about 34 years and we have got justice today," he said.
Advocate Anis said he feels like crying for those who were killed on August 15, 1975.
Muhitul Islam who was a personal assistant of then president Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and also a receptionist in Mujib's residence in 1975, paid his deep tributes to the memories of those who were assassinated on August 15, 1975.
"With my heart bleeding internally, I have long been waiting for this day, when such a verdict will turn our bereavement into a renewed vigour," he said.
"Being a freedom fighter, I have fought the Pakistani hordes in 1971 but could not save our father of the nation, who gave us a beautiful flag, and innocent child Sheikh Russel on that fateful night," said Muhit bursting into tears.
He said the perpetrators are now feeling why they had not killed him, as he filed the case against them.
Special counsel for this case, Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, son of Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni who was killed on the fateful night of August, burst into tears while speaking at the briefing.
Counsels for the state Abdul Matin Khasru, AFM Mesbahuddin, Motahar Hossain Sazu, Nurul Islam Sujan and SM Rezaul Karim, among others, spoke at the briefing.