Verdict in killing case June 16

Thirteen years after the gory bomb blasts at the city's Ramna Batamul, a Dhaka court yesterday completed the trial of the killing case and set June 16 to deliver the verdict.
Judge Ruhul Amin of the Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court fixed the date after conclusion of arguments from the defence.
During the traditional celebrations of the Bangla New Year, 1408 (April 14, 2001) at the Ramna Batamul, several blasts killed 10 people and injured around 50 others. Leading cultural platform Chhayanaut organises the event every year.
Mufti Abdul Hannan, chief of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (Huji), and its 13 other leaders and activists are accused in the case.  
The prosecution concluded its arguments on May 18 and demanded capital punishment for the accused.
Earlier, the court recorded statements of 61 prosecution witnesses, including the complainant of the case.  
Two cases -- one for the killing and the other under the explosive substances act -- were filed with Ramna Police Station in connection with the incident. It took the investigators over seven years to trace Huji links with the attack.
The Criminal Investigation Department on December 30, 2008 pressed charges against the 14 accused in both the cases.
The accused in the killing case are: Mufti Abdul Hannan, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Maulana Yahiya, Mufti Abdul Hye, Maulana Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid, Maulana Abu Bakar alias Selim Hawlader, Maulana Mohammad Tajuddin, Maulana Abdul Hannan Sabbir, Arif Hasan Suman, Maulana Akbar Hossain alias Helaluddin, Maulana Abu Taher, Maulana Abdur Rouf, Hafez Jahangir Alam Badar, and Shahadat Ullah alias Jewel.
Of them, Hannan, Suman, Jewel, Abu Taher, Sheikh Farid, Sabbir, Rouf, Yahiya and Akbar are behind bars, while the others are still at large.
During the investigation, Mufti Hannan and Akbar made confessional statements before magistrates saying that they along with other Huji members had carried out the bomb attack as celebrating the Bangla New Year is anti-Islamic.    
The case filed under the explosive substances act is stuck now. In 2009, the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 of Dhaka sought the Supreme Court registrar's opinion on whether both the cases could be tried together. The registrar is yet to respond to the tribunal.