2001 Ramna Batamul Blast: Families still wait for justice

It has been 23 years since the gruesome bomb attack on Ramna Batamul that left 10 people dead and several others injured during Pahela Baishakh celebrations.

But family members are still waiting for justice because of the appeals that have been pending with the High Court for 10 years.

Experts say several legal tangles have caused the delays in hearing and disposal of the death reference and appeals filed by the convicts.

The case filed over the bomb attack is now pending before the HC bench led by Justice SM Kuddus Zaman, said Attorney General AM Amin Uddin, adding that the bench will hear the case after the current vacation.

Both the Appellate and HC Divisions of the Supreme Court will reopen on April 21.

"I don't know why disposing of the case has been delayed," the attorney general said.

Mohammad Shishir Manir, lawyer for three convicts named Moulana Akbar Hossain who goes by the alias Helaluddin, Arif Hossain and Moulana Abdul Hye, said the Ramna Batamul bomb attack case had been included in the HC's hearing lists 370 times since 2014, but the benches concerned adjourned the hearing each time following the state's adjournment prayers.

There is no evidence and documents to prove the charges against the convicts, he said, adding that the trial court's verdict was based on "emotions", he said.

Shishir said a HC bench earlier hinted at acquitting the convicts due to the lack of evidence.

The attorney general's office has been taking adjournment of the hearings in order to make preparations to place arguments, he said.

"My clients have been suffering in custody for almost 22 years. I will seek bail for the them in next hearing."

According to sources at the attorney general's office, the investigation was conducted callously under the BNP-Jamaat government, and the state counsels were not serious about the case.

The main accused, Mufti Abdul Hannan, was executed in 2017 in another case.

The confessional statements of one or two convicts are the only evidence against the other convicts, the sources added.

As per the Code of Criminal Procedure, when a lower court sentences an individual to death, the HC examines the judgment.

THE RAMNA BLASTS

On April 14, 2001, two bombs went off during Pahela Baishakh 1408 celebrations by Chhayanaut at the capital's Ramna Batamul.

On June 23, 2014 a Dhaka court sentenced Mufti Abdul Hannan, Moulana Akbar Hossain alias Helaluddin, Moulana Mohammad Tajuddin, Hafez Jahangir Alam Badar, Moulana Abu Bakar alias Selim Hawlader, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Mufti Abdul Hye, and Arif Hasan Suman to death.

Moulana Abu Taher, Moulana Sabbir alias Abdul Hannan, Moulana Yahiya, Moulana Shawkat Osman, Moulana Abdur Rouf, and Shahadat Ullah were sentenced to life in prison.

The convicts are members of islamist group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami.

Five of them -- Tajuddin, younger brother of BNP leader Abdus Salam Pintu, Hafez Jahangir, Moulana Abu Bakar, Mufti Shafiqur, and Mufti Hye -- are on the run.

Mufti Hannan, one of the country's most notorious militants, was executed at Kashimpur High Security Prison on April 13, 2017, after he was convicted of carrying out a grenade attack in 2004 on the then British high commissioner Anwar Choudhury.