Ramna Batamul attack: Death row convict held in Narayanganj

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has claimed to have nabbed a fugitive death row convict in the 2001 Ramna Batamul attack case, reports UNB.

Mufti Abdul Hye, amir and founder of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), was apprehended during a drive in the Fatulla area of Narayanganj on Wednesday, RAB said on Thursday.

He was also a death row convict in a case filed over a murder attempt on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Kotalipara in Gopalganj in 2000.

Tipped off, a RAB team conducted the drive in the Fatulla area, said assistant SP (media wing) at RAB headquarters Imran Khan.

On 15 February, RAB detained Mufti Shafiqur Rahman alias Abdul Karim alias Shafiqul Islam, another fugitive death row convict in the Ramna Batamul carnage case.

A Dhaka court on 23 June, 2014, sentenced eight militants to death for the 2001 Ramna Batamul bomb attack that claimed the lives of 10 people and injured 50 others during new year celebrations.

On 20 August, 2017, the Speedy Trial Tribunal-2 in Dhaka sentenced 10 people to death in another case filed over the murder attempt on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Kotalipara in Gopalganj in 2000.

Police found a 76 kg bomb near a shop adjacent to Sheikh Lutfur Rahman Government High School on 20 July, 2000, where Hasina was supposed to address a rally on 22 July.

Another 40kg bomb was also recovered by an Army bomb expert squad from near the Kotalipara helipad on 23 July, 2000.