UNB, Chattogram :
An anti-terror tribunal in the port city on Wednesday sentenced five members of banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to death in the Chattogram naval base bomb blasts case.
Chattogram Anti-terrorism Tribunal judge Abdul Halim handed down the punishment to the five — Abdul Mannan, Ramjan Ali, Bablu Rahman, Abdul Gaffar and M Shakhawat Hossain, a former member of the Bangladesh Navy. Of them, Shakhawat was tried in absentia.
According to the prosecution, 24 Muslim devotees were injured when a number of bombs exploded at the two mosques inside the Isha Khan Base of the Bangladesh Navy on December 18, 2015.
Local people managed to catch Mannan and Ramjan red-handed from the spot.
On September 3, 2016, M Abu Syed, Marshal Commander of the Naval Provost of the Bangladesh Navy, lodged a complaint with EPZ Police.
Police subsequently registered a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Explosive Act.
In 2017, cops submitted a chargesheet against the five JMB men.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) detained Bablu from Jhenaidah district on October 30, 2017, while Gaffar was arrested by police in another case. He was shown arrested in this case later.
