Kazi Aref Ahmed

Family members, political activists and local people yesterday reiterated the demand for quick execution of the verdict in the case for killing former president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) Kazi Aref Ahmed and four other leaders of the party.

An armed gang killed Kazi Aref, Kushtia district unit JSD president Lokman Hossain, its general secretary Yakub Ali, and local JSD leaders Shamsher Ali and Israil Hossain at a rally in Kalidaspur village of Kushtia's Daulatpur upazila on February 16, 1999.

The killers belonged to Gono Bahini, believed to be an aberrant offshoot of JSD.

On August 30, 2004, Fazlur Rahman, the then additional district and sessions judge in Kushtia, pronounced death sentence for 10 people and life-term imprisonment for 12 others for the killings.

On September 25, 2004, all the 22 convicts appealed to the High Court against the verdict.

In a verdict on August 5 in 2008, the High Court upheld the death penalty for nine -- Shair Uddin of Talbaria, Baker of Kishorinagar, Mannan Mollah of Pachabhita, Anwar Hossain alias Anu, Rashedul Islam alias Jhantu and Jahan of Kursha, Jalal of Baliashisha, Safayat Hossain of Rajnagar and Rawshan of Bhabanipur in Meherpur.

Meanwhile, death penalty convict Ilias Hossain had a natural death in jail.

The HC exempted all the 12 lifers from the killing charge.

Convicts Rashedul Islam and Anwar Hossain filed an appeal for review of the High Court verdict in 2012.

After hearing, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court dismissed the review petitions and upheld the death penalty for the two on November 19 last year.

All the convicts have applied for presidential clemency to save their life, said Khandker Mahbub Hossain, chief counsel of the convicts.

Marking the 16th anniversary of the killings, JSD and its front organisations, Kazi Aref Smriti Sangsad, and Yakub Ali Trust arranged silent processions and discussions in Kushtia town while Lokman Hossain Foundation arranged a programme at Kalidaspur in Daulatpur upazila.

Nazmul Haq Prodhan, LSD lawmaker from Panchagarh Sadar, and JSD central leader Karim Shikdar attended the programmes participated by party activists, family members of the slain leaders, and locals.

They demanded immediate execution of the Supreme Court verdict. 

"We are eagerly waiting to see the execution of the verdict," said advocate Al Mujahid Hossain, son of slain JSD leader Lokman Hossain.

Contacted, JSD President Hasanul Haq Inu, also information minister, told this correspondent over phone, "Kazi Aref and four other JSD leaders were murdered in a pre-planned way. The perpetrators of the heinous crime must be punished."