Nizami, Babar taken to Kashimpur Jail

Four convicts, including Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami and former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar, of Chittagong arms haul cases were taken to Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur and Dhaka Central Jail on Saturday evening. A microbus carrying Nizami, also the former minister for industries during the BNP-led 4-party alliance government in 2001-2006, and Babar reached Kashimpur Jail around 6:45pm and sent to the prison’s Unit No-1, sources at the jail said. Two other condemned convicts – former DGFI (Directorate General of Forces Intelligence) director Maj Gen (retd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury and former DG of National Security Intelligence (NSI) Brig Gen (retd) Abdur Rahim – were also taken to Dhaka Central Jail around 5:40pm, said Farman Ali, senior superintendent of the jail. Three microbuses with the four condemned convicts under a strong police escort started for Kashimpur Jail and Dhaka Central Jail from Chittagong city at about 10:45 am, said Rafiqul Quader, the jailer of Chittagong Central Jail. Earlier, a Chittagong court here on Thursday sentenced 14 people, including Nizami and BNP leader Babar, to death in the sensational 10-truck arms smuggling case, about 10 years after the arms recovery, according to UNB.