Harkat-ul-Jihad leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, sentenced to death for his role in a suicide attack in 2001 (photo by Shahadat Hosen)
A court in Bangladesh on Monday handed death sentences to eight Islamic militants including their leader. Six others received life sentences for a bombing that killed 10 people at a 2001 concert in Dhaka, celebrating the Bengali new year.
Ten members of the banned and now-defunct Harkat-ul-Jihad (HUJI) were present in the packed Dhaka courtroom, including leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, with a further four militants sentenced in absentia believed to have fled the country.
The suicide bombings of April 2001 in Ramna Park, downtown Dhaka, killed 10 people and injured dozens. Many Bangladeshis were deeply shocked that the incident took place in what is considered a moderate Islamic state.
During police interrogations, the HUJI members said they targeted the event because it featured singing and dancing by a cultural troupe, Chhayanat, which they deemed anti-Islamic.
“After years of waiting, justice has been delivered for this heinous crime but it has been done partially," said state prosecutor Abdullah Abu. “We hoped that all the criminals would be awarded death sentences.”
The attack was seen as the start of a rise in Islamic militancy in Bangladesh with HUJI and another group, Jama’atul Mujahideen (JMB) claiming responsibility for a series of bomb attacks targeting cultural and political events as well as the judiciary during five years up to 2006.
On August 17, 2005 more than 300 explosions rocked all but one of Bangladesh’s 64 districts, prompting widespread concern that the country was slipping into all-out insurgent conflict.
The JMB also formed kangaroo courts in northern areas and publicly executed people for allegedly violating Sharia law.
A number of JMB leaders were executed in 2007. Both groups still face charges over other attacks.
