A HISTORIC verdict was delivered by Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal of Dhaka on Wednesday with sentencing seven militants to death for their involvement in 2016 Holey Artisan Bakery attack that took lives of 22 people, including 17 foreigners, mostly Japanese and Italian. The seven death-row convicts were also fined Tk 50,000 each. Only one accused Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan was acquitted from the case as allegations brought against him could not be proved. All the convicts after hearing the verdict started shouting at the judge. A gang of five armed men, who held several men and women hostage inside the posh Holey Artisan Bakery (restaurant) in the Dhaka’s Gulshan diplomatic enclave, were also killed in an operation launched by the para-commando unit of Bangladesh Army next morning. Earlier, two police officers were also killed by the terrorists.
No doubt, it was the country’s most brutal killing episode in the contemporary history that took place defying the high surveillance and security in the diplomatic zone. Security forces claimed that the terrorists tried to create “unrest” in the country in a bid to turn Bangladesh into a “terrorist state”. The charge-sheet produced by the police said, the suspects carried out the attack to destabilise the country, put the government under pressure, make investors and foreign consultants leave the country and destroy the economy. Like the investigation process, the trial proceeding of this sensitive case was completed in the shortest possible time, less than one year. We think it’s a great achievement not only for the investigation team but also for the judicial squad to draw a conclusion successfully. There is a scope for both sides to go to higher court.
We cannot fall in the trap of pro-Indian propaganda. In Bangladesh we do not say there are no religious extremists. But this problem is nothing in comparison to what we find in India. We are lucky our religious minded people do not react to the extreme communalism used against the Muslims.
