Only 16 verdicts in 154 Aug 17 blasts cases

FE Team | Published: August 18, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Verdict has been delivered in only 16 of the 154 cases linked to the August 17, 2005 serial bomb blasts across the country despite promises of speedy trial, reports bdnews24.com.
Notorious Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) declared its presence aloud on the day when it detonated serial bombs at 634 spots in 63 districts.
Officials at the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of police said 267 cases had been filed over the bombing until August 2, 2007, 154 cases alone on the day.
As many as 740 people have been arrested in the cases and police have pressed charges in 224 cases.
Investigation is going on in 42 cases and charges have been dropped in one case.
CID officials said trial of 44 cases has been completed, 151 cases are on trial, 29 are ready for trial.
In the 44 cases that have gone to verdict, 35 people were handed down death sentence, 70 received life-terms in jail and 97 received various prison terms.
On August 17, 2005, a Wednesday, Lutfozzaman Babar, the then state minister of home affairs, had called a law and order review meeting of the top police, RAB and intelligence officials in his office at 10:00am.
As the top brass were discussing the overall law and order situation in the meeting, the first bomb detonated at Narayanganj.
The police chief's cell phone rang and the meeting came to know about the blast. The officers rushed back to their offices.
News of bomb blasts across the country started pouring in soon.
Dhaka city alone saw 33 detonations at or near the National Press Club, the High Court building, Hotel Sheraton and other places. Panicked people ran for cover.
The scenes of blasts were littered with leaflets, timepiece parts, scotch tape, chaff, electric switches and other such bomb-making materials.
The leaflets read: "We do not abide by man-made laws. Do away with the current judicial systems. Establish Islamic governance."
The BNP-Jamaat alliance government, blamed by some quarters to have aided and abetted the rise of JMB and other militant outfits, disbanded Harkatul Jihad Bangladesh two months after the serial bomb blasts.
JMB and another militant organisation JMJB (Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh) were disbanded February 23, 2006.
Earlier, another organisation called Shahadat-I-Al Hiqma was outlawed on February 19, 2003.
It is widely believed that the government outlawed organisations upholding and professing religious militancy and cracked down on their activists under intense external pressures.