Mufti Hannan's mercy plea rejected

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan yesterday said preparations were underway to execute the death penalty of Mufti Hannan and his two associates according to the jail code as their petitions for presidential clemency were rejected.

The minister, however, did not give any details about the time and place of the executions of Hannan, the condemned chief of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul Jihad-al Islam (HuJI) and his two accomplices, while replying queries from journalists at his Secretariat office.

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Mufti Hannan and his associate Sharif Shahedul Bipul have been kept at Kashimpur High Security Prison, Gazipur while Delwar Hossain alias Ripon, the other accomplice, at Sylhet Central Jail.

The militants filed mercy petitions on March 27 to the President seeking clemency after the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court rejected their petition to review of their death penalty in a case filed for carrying out grenade attack on the then UK Ambassador Anwar Chowdhury at Shahjalal Shrine in Sylhet in 2004.

Meanwhile, the jail authorities said they were yet to receive any order to execute the death penalties.

The grenade attack was launched at Shahjalal Shrine on May 21, in which three people, assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) of Police Kamal Uddin and Constable Rubel Ahmed, were killed and 40 others, including the then British envoy Anwar Chowdhury suffered splinter injuries.

Earlier on December 7 last year, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty of the trio. It also upheld the High Court order that sentenced life in prison to Mohibullah and Abu Zandal as they did not file any petition against the verdict.

The death-row convicts filed petitions seeking review of their death penalties after the Supreme Court released the full verdict in the case. The Supreme Court on March 19 rejected their petition for which their death penalties were upheld at the final verdict.

On December 23, 2008, the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal sentenced Mufti Hannan, Bipul and Ripon to death and Muhibullah alias Muhibur Rahman alias Ovi and Mufti Main Uddin alias Abu Zandal to life in prison in the 2004 grenade attack case on the Uk envoy.