HC commutes sentences in Ramna Batamul blast case

The High Court on Tuesday commuted the sentences of 10 convicts in the Ramna Batamul bomb attack case that killed 10 people during Bengali New Year celebrations in 2001.

A bench comprising Justice Mostafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasrin Akhter delivered the verdict.

The court commuted the death sentence of Maulana Tajuddin to life imprisonment and upheld the life sentence of Shahadat Ullah Jewel.

The appeals of three other convicts were abated as they had died during the trial process.

Earlier on May 8, the court had fixed May 13 to deliver its judgment in the long-pending case.

The deadly blast occurred on April 14, 2001, during Chhayanat’s Pahela Baishakh celebrations at Ramna Batamul. Nine people were killed instantly, while another died later in hospital.

Following the incident, two cases were filed with Ramna Police Station—one for murder and another under the Explosives Act.

On June 23, 2014, a Dhaka court sentenced eight members of Harkatul Jihad (Huji), including its chief Mufti Hannan, to death, and seven others to life imprisonment in the murder case.

Other death-row convicts included Akbar Hossain, Arif Hassan, Md Tajuddin, Hafez Jahangir Alam Badar, Abu Bakar alias Hafez Selim Hawladar, Abdul Hye, and Shafiqur Rahman.

Mufti Hannan was executed on April 12, 2017, in connection with a separate grenade attack case in Sylhet.

The remaining life-term convicts were Shahadatullah Jewel, Sabbir, Sheikh Farid, Abdur Rauf, Yeahia, and Abu Taher.

The death references and appeals had been pending with the High Court for years before Tuesday’s judgment.