37 yrs RI for 2 accomplices of Bangla Bhai

7 July 2010, 18:00 PM

Court Correspondent

A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced two associates of Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, the executed second-in-command of banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, to 37 years of rigorous imprisonment each for possessing arms and ammunition. Judge Mohammad Rezaul Islam of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 handed down the sentences in presence of accused Masud alias Abdur Rouf and Mohammad Chand Miah. The court acquitted Fahima Begum alias Farzana Begum as the charge brought against her was not proved. Earlier the prosecutor and the defense attorneys had completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of 23 prosecution witnesses. According to the prosecution, a team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested Bangla Bhai along with Rouf and Chand Miah from a house at Rampura in Muktagachha of Mymensingh on March 6, 2006. Rab also seized a small machine gun, a foreign-made pistol, two revolvers and a huge stock of ammunition from the house. Later an arms case was filed against them with Muktagachha Police Station. Bangla Bhai along with JMB leader Shaekh Abdur Rahman and four other top militant leaders were executed in 2007.