Bangla Bhai's wife, 2 JMB men jailed

A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced the wife of executed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leader Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and two JMB men to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment each for possessing explosive substances.
The convicts are Fahima alias Farzana, Salahuddin alias Saleheen and Asaduzzaman Chowdhury alias Panir.
Judge Mohammad Rezaul Islam of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 handed down the sentence in presence of the convicts at a packed courtroom.
Earlier, the prosecution and the defence had completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of 16 prosecution witnesses.
According to the prosecution, a team of Rapid Action Battalion on December 18, 2005 raided a residence at Aqua Morolpara under Kotwali Police Station in Mymensingh district.
The elite force recovered 57 items of explosives and arrested Saleheen and Panir from the scene. Farzana was later shown arrested in the case.
The Mymensingh haul includes four grenades, 12 bombs of different sizes including a light-sensitive one, a sub-machine gun, 80 electric detonators, 20kg ammonium nitrate, gun powder, GI wire, lead azide, lead nitrate, electric circuits, batteries, fuses, snail shells and iron balls used in fishing nets.
Two cases -- one under the Arms Act and the other under the Explosive Substances Act -- were filed with Kotwali Police Station of Mymensingh.
JMB chief Shaek Abdur Rahman, its second-in-command Bangla Bhai and its military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny were also accused in the cases, but their names were dropped from the charge sheet as they were earlier executed for killing two judges in Jhalakathi district on November 14, 2005.