'Boma' Mizan jailed for 37yrs
A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced a leader of banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and his wife to 37 years of rigorous imprisonment each for possessing weapons and bullets.
The convicted are Zahidul Islam alias Boma Mizan, an explosives expert of the outlawed group, and his wife Halima Begum alias Sharmin.
Judge Mohammad Akhteruzzaman of the Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court handed down the punishment to the couple at a packed courtroom.
Earlier, the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of 8 prosecution witnesses.
On May 2009, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) captured Boma Mizan from his residence in Taltola in the capital's Mirpur area.
Sharmin tried to commit suicide by blowing herself up when Rab tried to arrest her. She lost one of her hands in the blast and wounded her two-year-old son Saifullah Sukaine Naim and two-month-old daughter Masroba Jannat Tora.
Following confessional statement of Boma Mizan, Rab busted a “mini-munitions factory” of JMB in East Monipur in Mirpur and recovered a huge cache of bombs and bomb-making materials.
The elite force recovered 11 bombs, plastic explosives, grenade casings, fuses and detonators, a pistol, and a huge stash of chemical residues from the East Monipur flat that was also rented by Mizan.
Following the seizure, Rab filed two cases--one for possessing arms and another for explosives-- with Mirpur Police Station.
In 2003, Mizan was arrested in Jhikargachha of Jessore, but came out on bail after three months. Since then he had been on the run.
A Chittagong court sentenced him to 34 years of rigorous imprisonment for a bomb attack on a judge in 2005. He was tried in absentia.
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