Huji Leader Mufti Hannan: Last legal bar to execution goes

The legal battle in the case for the 2004 grenade attack on the then UK envoy in Bangladesh has finally come to an end after 13 years.

It so happened after the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed the petitions by accused Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islam (Huji) militants, including its chief Mufti Abdul Hannan, seeking reviews of the SC's previous verdict upholding their death sentences.

This means the government can now implement the verdict. 

However, the trio can seek presidential clemency as the last option to avoid gallows.

The two others are Sharif Shahedul Alam Bipul and Delwar Hossain Ripon. 

In 2004, the then UK envoy Anwar Chowdhury, who was born in Bangladesh, and 70 others were injured in the attack at the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) in Sylhet. Three people, including a police officer, were killed.

On December 23, 2008, the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal sentenced Mufti Hannan, Bipul and Ripon to death. Two other members of the now banned militant outfit were given life time in jail. They are Muhibullah alias Muhibur Rahman alias Ovi and Mufti Main Uddin alias Abu Zandal.

Talking to The Daily Star, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said, "The jail authorities will start the execution process after receiving the Supreme Court order. I think all the relevant processes might complete within a week."

Helal Uddin Mollah, a defence lawyer, said the convicts were yet to decide about the presidential mercy and that they would make that decision later.

On December 7 last year, the SC upheld the death penalty of  Hannan, Bipul and Ripon.

The trio filed for reviews on February 23 this year.

Earlier on February 11 last year, the High Court confirmed the capital punishments for the three and upheld the life sentences of Ovi and Abu Zandal.

Mufti Hannan and Bipul later filed appeals with the SC challenging the HC verdict.

The SC appointed Helal Uddin Mollah to defend Ripon in the case as he did not submit any appeal.

Mahbubey Alam earlier told this correspondent that the life imprisonments of Ovi and Abu Zandal would remain in force as they did not move any appeal before the SC against their convictions and sentences.

Mufti Hannan is also an accused in 24 other criminal cases including those filed for the grenade attack on the Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka on August 21, 2004. Twenty-four people were killed and around 300 others injured in the grenade attack. Trials of these cases are now underway.

Anwar Chowdhury went to visit the shrine on May 21, 2004, only after 18 days of his assignment in Dhaka, for noon prayers.

As he was coming out of the shrine, a grenade attack jolted the whole area, injuring him and others.

Two people died instantly and another the day after.

The envoy was initially taken to a hospital in Sylhet but was later brought to the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka.