bdnews24.com :
It has been three years since a suicide bomb blast rocked a hotel in Dhaka’s Panthapath close to Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhanmondi, in what is said to be a foiled plot to attack National Mourning Day programmes. But the trial proceedings over the matter are yet to begin.
Law enforcement arrested 14 people over their suspected ties to the incident. A Dhaka court later accepted the formal charges pressed by police and passed it on to the anti-terrorism special tribunal in December 2019.
Eight months on, an indictment hearing, the first step of the trial process, is yet to take place, with the coronavirus pandemic being cited as the reason for the hold up in the legal proceedings.
Tribunal Judge Mujibur Rahman is set to conduct the hearing on Sept 16.
“We are hopeful that the trial proceedings will commence shortly after the charges framed,” the tribunal’s Additional Public Prosecutor Golam Sarwar Khan Zakir told bdnews24.com.
Police raided the hotel on the night of Aug 14 with the counterterrorism unit and SWAT joining forces with them the next morning. A suspected militant had been holed up in the hotel, according to police.
Several hours into the raid, law enforcers called on him to surrender. But the militant, later identified as Saiful Islam, instead blew himself up with a National Mourning Day programme taking place just 300 metres away at Road No. 32 of Dhanmondi.
The explosion caused a portion of the building’s fourth-floor wall and grill to collapse onto the street below.
Saiful was a member of the revived faction of banned terrorist outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or Neo-JMB, police said.
The next day, Kalabagan police started a case over the matter under the anti-terrorism law.
After a two-year investigation, Inspector Raju Ahmed of the police’s
Counter-Terrorism Unit submitted charges against 13 suspects on Nov 24, 2019. The other suspect was below the age of 18 and therefore, a separate charge-sheet was filed against him under the Children Act.
“We were making good progress with the case. But due to the epidemic, the court went on leave for a few months. But the courts have now reopened. The case is at the charge hearing stage. Once the charges are framed, we will try to expedite the trial by bringing the witnesses to court,” said Zakir.
The legal team for the accused said they will appeal for the charges to be dropped at the hearing.
Six of the accused are currently out on bail, while the others are behind bars. Ten of them have confessed to taking part in the plot in statements given to the court.
The eight suspects in jail are Akram Hossain Khan Niloy aka Slade Wilson, Nazmul Hassan, Abul Kashem Fakir, Abdullah Aichan Kabiraj alias Rafique, Tarek Mohammed alias Adnan, Kamrul Islam Shakil and Lulu Sarder.
Sadia Hosna Lucky, Md Tajul Islam alias Chhoton, Akram Hossain Khan Niloy, Tarek Mohammed alias Adnan and Lulu Sarder alias Shahid are some of the arrestees in the case.
Among the arrestees, Abu Torab Khan, father of other two accused Niloy and Tazrin and Homaira Zakir Nabila, have received bail from the High Court and Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court.
Tazrin Khanam, Sadia Hossain Lucky, Abu Turab Khan, Tanvir Yasin Karim, Homaira Zakir Nabila and ‘Abdullah’ were granted bail in the case.
According to the charge-sheet, they were all members of Neo-JMB. The group’s “intent” was to carry out a bomb attack on the people who had come to visit Dhanmondi 32 on National Mourning Day.
Following law enforcement’s crackdown on militants in the wake of the Holey Artisan attack, Akram Hossain Khan Niloy took over the reins of the organisation, Monirul Islam, the chief of the counter-terrorism unit, said in a media briefing in November 2019.
“Niloy had planned the attack on the Mourning Day programme. Each of them was assigned a role. Tanvir, his wife along with Niloy’s parents and sister provided the finances.”
It has been three years since a suicide bomb blast rocked a hotel in Dhaka’s Panthapath close to Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhanmondi, in what is said to be a foiled plot to attack National Mourning Day programmes. But the trial proceedings over the matter are yet to begin.
Law enforcement arrested 14 people over their suspected ties to the incident. A Dhaka court later accepted the formal charges pressed by police and passed it on to the anti-terrorism special tribunal in December 2019.
Eight months on, an indictment hearing, the first step of the trial process, is yet to take place, with the coronavirus pandemic being cited as the reason for the hold up in the legal proceedings.
Tribunal Judge Mujibur Rahman is set to conduct the hearing on Sept 16.
“We are hopeful that the trial proceedings will commence shortly after the charges framed,” the tribunal’s Additional Public Prosecutor Golam Sarwar Khan Zakir told bdnews24.com.
Police raided the hotel on the night of Aug 14 with the counterterrorism unit and SWAT joining forces with them the next morning. A suspected militant had been holed up in the hotel, according to police.
Several hours into the raid, law enforcers called on him to surrender. But the militant, later identified as Saiful Islam, instead blew himself up with a National Mourning Day programme taking place just 300 metres away at Road No. 32 of Dhanmondi.
The explosion caused a portion of the building’s fourth-floor wall and grill to collapse onto the street below.
Saiful was a member of the revived faction of banned terrorist outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or Neo-JMB, police said.
The next day, Kalabagan police started a case over the matter under the anti-terrorism law.
After a two-year investigation, Inspector Raju Ahmed of the police’s
Counter-Terrorism Unit submitted charges against 13 suspects on Nov 24, 2019. The other suspect was below the age of 18 and therefore, a separate charge-sheet was filed against him under the Children Act.
“We were making good progress with the case. But due to the epidemic, the court went on leave for a few months. But the courts have now reopened. The case is at the charge hearing stage. Once the charges are framed, we will try to expedite the trial by bringing the witnesses to court,” said Zakir.
The legal team for the accused said they will appeal for the charges to be dropped at the hearing.
Six of the accused are currently out on bail, while the others are behind bars. Ten of them have confessed to taking part in the plot in statements given to the court.
The eight suspects in jail are Akram Hossain Khan Niloy aka Slade Wilson, Nazmul Hassan, Abul Kashem Fakir, Abdullah Aichan Kabiraj alias Rafique, Tarek Mohammed alias Adnan, Kamrul Islam Shakil and Lulu Sarder.
Sadia Hosna Lucky, Md Tajul Islam alias Chhoton, Akram Hossain Khan Niloy, Tarek Mohammed alias Adnan and Lulu Sarder alias Shahid are some of the arrestees in the case.
Among the arrestees, Abu Torab Khan, father of other two accused Niloy and Tazrin and Homaira Zakir Nabila, have received bail from the High Court and Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court.
Tazrin Khanam, Sadia Hossain Lucky, Abu Turab Khan, Tanvir Yasin Karim, Homaira Zakir Nabila and ‘Abdullah’ were granted bail in the case.
According to the charge-sheet, they were all members of Neo-JMB. The group’s “intent” was to carry out a bomb attack on the people who had come to visit Dhanmondi 32 on National Mourning Day.
Following law enforcement’s crackdown on militants in the wake of the Holey Artisan attack, Akram Hossain Khan Niloy took over the reins of the organisation, Monirul Islam, the chief of the counter-terrorism unit, said in a media briefing in November 2019.
“Niloy had planned the attack on the Mourning Day programme. Each of them was assigned a role. Tanvir, his wife along with Niloy’s parents and sister provided the finances.”
