DHAKA,  – A special tribunal here today sentenced 14 members of banned militant outfit Harkat ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI) to death in a sedition case filed for plotting to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by planting bomb at the temporary helipad on Sheikh Lutfor Rahman Government Ideal College ground in 2000.

Judge Abu Jafar Md Kamruzzaman of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 passed the judgement in a crowded courtroom this afternoon.

The convicts are: Md Azizul Haque alias Shanewaj, Md Lokman, Md Eusuf alias Mochahab Morol, Mochab Hossain alias Rashu, Sheikh Md Enamul Haque, Md Mofijur Rahman alias Mofij, Md Mahmud Ajhar alias Mamunur Rashid, Md Rasheduzzaman alias Shimul, Md Tarek, Md Wadud Sheikh alias Gazi Khan, Md Anisul Islam, Sarwar Hossain Miah, Mawlana Amirul Islam alias Jennat Munshi and Mawlana Rafikul Islam Khan.

Of the 14, Md Azizul Haque alias Shanewaj, Md Lokman, Md Eusuf alias Mochahab Morol, Mochab Hossain alias Rashu and Sheikh Md Enamul Haque are yet to be arrested and were tried in absentia.

The tribunal in its order sentenced the convicts to be executed by firing squad in public or by traditional way of hanging.

“The convicts planted the bomb to oust the democratic and legitimate government by killing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and leaders and activists of Awami League. The anti-liberation forces are continuing their conspiracies since their defeat in the War of Liberation,” the court said in its observation.

“They killed Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975 and hatched conspiracies one after another to kill Sheikh Hasina since her return to the country. Tribunal believes that it is possible to stop recurrence of such horrible and brutal incidents by giving exemplary punishments to the convicts,” it added.

The tribunal on March 11 set today to pronounce the judgement as both the prosecution and defence concluded their arguments in the case on that day.

According to the case documents, army men recovered a 76-kg powerful bomb on July 21, 2000, from the premises of Sheikh Lutfor Rahman Government Ideal College when a podium was being made for Prime Minister’s rally.

Then sub-inspector Nur Hossain of Kotalipara Police Station filed the case under explosive substances act. ASP Abdul Kahhar Akand on November 15, 2001, filed charge-sheet against 15 in the case and the court on November 21, 2004, framed charges against the accused.

HuJI leader Mufti Abdul Hannan was the prime accused in the case, but his name was dropped after he was executed in a separate case.

A total of 34 witnesses out of 50 were examined by the court in the case.