sentenced to death
Representative image. Image Credit - ndtv.com

Ten Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (Huji) operatives were on Monday sentenced to death for their involvement in a bomb blast in Dhaka in 2001.

The proscribed Islamist terrorist group in Bangladesh carried out a blast on January, 2001 on a Communist Party rally leaving eight people dead and over 50 injured.

Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Court’s Judge Mohammed Rabiul Islam sentenced the eight terrorists to death.

The court acquitted two others in the case and fined each of the death row convicts Bangladeshi Taka 20,000 (USD 281), the Dhaka Tribune reported.

The main accused, banned Islamist outfit Huji chief Mufti Abdul Hannan, was hanged in a case filed over a grenade attack on ex-British envoy Anwar Choudhury in Sylhet on April 12, 2017.

Among the 13 convicts, four were present at the court on Monday. Six other convicts sentenced to death are still on the run.

Two others have been acquitted in the case.

All of them belong to the banned Islamist militant group.

On September 4, 2014, the court framed charges against the 13 members.

On January 27, 2005, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate asked the authorities to re-investigate the matter following a petition for fresh probe into the cases.

Investigating officer CID Inspector Mrinal Kanti Saha submitted the charge-sheet on November 27, 2013 accusing 13 of being involved in it.

The court in its verdict said that the convicts committed the murders to disrupt the democracy in the country and wipe out the pro-liberation forces.

The court also said that no one had the right to commit such heinous acts in the name of religion, The Daily Star reported.