Staff Reporter :
Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) Chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his two aides Sharif Shahedul Alam Bipul and Delwar Hossain alias Ripon were executed at Gazipur’s Kashimpur High Security and Sylhet Central Jails on Wednesday night.
The top HuJI leader Hannan and his cohort Bipul were hanged in a same scaffold at Kashimpur High Security Jail at 10:00pm while Bipul was also hanged at Sylhet Central Jail at the same time, Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin confirmed The New Nation.
Earlier, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said at his office on Wednesday that the death row-convict HuJI leaders’ death sentenced executed in case of grenade attack on the then UK envoy Anwar Choudhury in 2004. “We have executed the militant in a same gallows at the jail around 10:00pm on Wednesday,” said Mizanur Rahman, Senior Jail Super of Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur.
The executed HuJI leaders ate rice with vegetables before hanging at the gallows at 10:00pm, he said.
Earlier, the execution of the death sentence of two militants, Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier Genral Seyed Iftekhar Uddin, Addition IG-Prison Iqbal Hossain, DIG-Prisnons Touhidul Islam, District Deputy Commissioner SM Alam, District Civil Surgeon Civil Surgeon Dr Syed Md Manzurul Haque, Police Superintendent Md Harun-Ur-Rashid, Kashimpur Senior Jail Super Mizanur Rahman, Jial recruited Imma Hella Uddin, his associate Hafiz Abu Noman, entered the jail in the evening, said our local correspondent.
Two ambulances were seen entering the jail around 6:30pm, reports our correspondent from the spot, he said.
The authorities beefed up security in and around the Kashimpur jail, where condemned HuJI militant Sharif Shahedul Alam Bipul was kept with Hannan. Nearby roads are made off-limit for commoners and business establishments within 500 yards of the jail were kept shutter down. Earlier in the morning, family members of Hannan met him at Kashimpur Central Jail. Mufti Hannan’s wife Zakia Parvin, daughters Nishi Khanam and Nazrin Khanam, and elder brother Munshi left after 40 minutes around 7:45am.
On Tuesday, the jail authority asked the family members of Hannan and another militant, to meet them at the jail.
Aliuzzaman told the media outside the prison that his brother told him that the charges against him were not true and that it was a conspiracy. Hannan has expressed a wish to speak to his mother Rabeya Begum over phone, his brother says after meeting him.
“Hannan wants to talk to our mother over the phone. He told me that he wants to be buried at the village graveyard,” said Alizzaman told journalists at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur on Wednesday.
He said they had informed the jail authorities about his brother’s wishes. “They (jail authorities) have assured us that they will take necessary steps regarding his burial after meeting the high ups.” His wife Zakia Parveen said her husband had requested everyone to pray for him. Security has been beefed up around the jail and police patrols are ongoing across the city, said Gazipur Superintendent of Police Md Harun-Ur-Rashid.
The preparation for burying Mufti Hanna has been completed at his home district in Gopalganj, said Md Kamrul Faruq, OC of Kotwalipara Police Station. Besides, Delwar Hossain alias Ripon was executed at Sylhet Central Jail around 10:00pm, reports our Sylhet correspondent quoting Senior Jail Super Sagir Mian.
An 11-meber panel led by Fruq took part to execute the death sentence at the jail, he said.
Meanwhile, at least 25 family members met with Ripon as per his desire to talk to his family members and have Iftar with them as he was fasting on Wednesday, Sagir Mian said.
Ripon’s father Abu Yousuf, mother Azizinnesa, wife Nuri, brother Nazmul Islam, uncle Abdun Nur, cousin Rumena, Lutfa Begum Zabir Hossain, were met with him among the family members.
Later, Jail Super Sagir Mian, Jailer Abu Sayem, district Civil Surgeon, Executive Magistrate, Hazratmaulana Mufti Md Belal entered the room at night.
He was buried at Kulaura upazila in Moulvibazar district. Said Abu Yousuf. Law enforcers strengthened security measures in and around the jail centering the execution, police said.
Earlier, on March, 27, the three Huji men, including its chief, filed separate petitions seeking presidential clemency.
On March 19, the Appellate Division upheld the death sentence of Mufti Hannan, Delwar Alias Ripon and Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul after hearing the review petitions filed by the three death-row convicts. It released the full text of its verdict on March 21.
Among them, Mufti Hannan and Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul have been kept at Kashimpur Central Jail while Delwar Alias Ripon is in Sylhet Central Jail.
On December 7, 2016, an SC bench, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, upheld the death penalty of the three in the case rejecting appeals filed by the Huji chief and Bipul challenging the High Court verdict that had upheld their death sentence awarded by the tribunal.
In 2004, then British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury came under a grenade attack while coming out of Hazrat Shahjalal’s shrine in his hometown Sylhet. The envoy and 40 employees of Sylhet district administration were injured in the attack.
Educated at madrasas, top HuJI leader Mufti Hannan hails from Gopalganj and is infamous for being one of the initiators of militant activities in Bangladesh. He is said to be the mastermind of 13 terrorist attacks, including an attempt on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s life, perpetrated by the banned militant group Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI). He faces trial for planting a bomb made with 76kg of explosives near the venue of a public rally addressed by Hasina at Kotaliparha in 2000.
Mufti Hannan has been sentenced to death for the 2001 bombings at Dhaka’s Ramna Park on the Bengali New Year.
