15 sentenced to death for
killing Mujib
DHAKA, Nov 8 (PTI) —
A Bangladesh court today sentenced to death by firing
squad 15 ex-military officials on charges of
assassinating Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, in a coup 23 years ago.
District and Sessions
Court Judge Kazi Golam Rasul, however, acquitted four
others on the grounds that there was not enough evidence
against them.
The judgement was
delivered under unprecedented security in and around the
court complex amid reports of a plot by some of the
conspirators against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
While three of the accused
were present in the packed court, the rest were tried in
absentia in the 148-day trial which began on March 12
last year.
"The 15 have been
found guilty of being directly involved in the death of
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family, and have
been sentenced to death by firing squad," the Judge
said.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
along with most of his family was assassinated on August
15, 1975 in a military coup.
His daughter, Prime
Minister Hasina, was out of the country at the time of
the assassination.
Former Bangladesh
Information Minister Taheruddin Thakur was among those
acquitted by the trial court.
The Judge said death
sentences should be executed in public. If there was any
legal difficulty, then they could be executed through
other means, he said.
The Judge said those who
had been sentenced could appeal to a higher court against
the judgement.
The Judge observed the
assassination was a harmful and brutal act both for the
state as well as society and wondered that the plotters
executed their plans despite being aware of the
consequences.
Of those sentenced to
death, Col Syed Farooqur Rahman (retd), Lt-Col Sultan
Shariyar Rashid Khan (retd) and Lt-Col Muhiuddin Khan
(retd) were arrested and stood trial while the rest were
absconding.
Earlier, the ruling Awami
League activists today marched through the streets of
Dhaka raising slogans in support of the trial, described
as "historic" by Bangla newspapers.
For more than 21 years,
since Rahman’s assassination, no action was taken
against the plotters until Sheikh Hasina led the Awami
League to power in the 1996 elections.
Four months later in
November, Parliament scrapped an indemnity law which
until then protected the accused who were kept away from
the political scene by being given diplomatic assignments
by successive governments.
"It was not a simple
murder of an individual, this murder caused irreparable
loss to the nation and society," Mr Rasul said and
criticised the then armed forces for failure to provide
protection to "the father of the nation."
The historic judgement
came after 148 days of hearing and around 23 years after
the assassination.
The convicted are: Col
Syed Farooqur Rahman, Lt-Col Sultan Shahriyar Rashid
Khan, Lt-Col Muhiuddin, Col Khandaker Abdur Rashid,
Lt-Col Aziz Pasha, Major Shariful Haq Dalim, Major Bazlul
Huda, Major Noor, Major Mohiuddin, Major Rashed
Chowdhury, Major Ahmed Sharful Hasan, Capt Kismat Hashem,
Capt Majed, Lt Nazmul Ansar, Risaldar and Moslemuddin.
The trial formally began on March 12, 1997, after the
personal assistant of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Mr Mohitul
Islam lodged a first information report with the
Dhanamondi police station on October 2, 1996.
Bangladesh had meandered
through two decades of political turmoil during which
there were three bloody coups, 19 failed coup attempts
and two heads of government had been assassinated before
Sheikh Hasina assumed power.
Deposition and
cross-examination began on July 6, 1997. A total of 61
witnesses, including 39 of the army, navy, air force and
Bangladesh Rifles, made depositions.
Meanwhile, the authorities
have deployed more than 10,000 security personnel in the
capital fearing an outbreak of violence in the wake of
the verdict.
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