Bangladesh executes HuJI chief, two associates

Dhaka: Bangladesh on Wednesday executed banned Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami(HuJI) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his two associates for a 2004 attack on a shrine that killed three people and wounded the British high commissioner at the time.
Hannan was hanged at Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur along with his accomplice Sharif Shahedul alias Bipul at 10:01pm, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan was quoted as saying by the Bdnews24.com. His associate Delwar Hossain Ripon was executed in Sylhet jail, the minister added. President Abdul Hamid had rejected their mercy petitions.
On March 19, the Supreme Court reconfirmed an earlier verdict of itself endorsing death penalty of Hannan and the two others for the 2004 attack on the then UK envoy. The then Bangladeshi born British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury narrowly escaped the grenade attack at a shrine in northeastern Sylhet that killed three people, all policemen, and injured 70 others. Anwar sustained minor injuries.
The HuJI operatives carried out the attack at the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal in Sylhet, also the birthplace of Chowdhury, as he went to visit there 18 days into his new assignment in Dhaka.
A speedy trial tribunal originally tried the case and delivered its verdict on December 23, 2008, sentencing to death HuJI leaders Sharif Shahedul Alam and Delwar Hossain alongside Hannan. Hannan and seven other kingpins and operatives of Huji were earlier sentenced to death by another court in Dhaka for a deadly 2001 bomb attack that killed 10 people during Bengali New Year celebrations at a public park. Bangladesh has witnessed a spate of attacks on secular activists, foreigners and religious minorities since 2013.