Bangladesh executes HuJI chief and his two aides

Banned militant outfit Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his two associate's were on Wednesday night executed by the Bangladesh Government for killing three persons in a grenade attack on the then British high commissioner Anwar Choudhury at Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) Shrine in Sylhet in 2004.

The HuJI chief was responsible for killing of more than a hundred people in 13 terror attacks between 1999 and 2005, reports the Daily Star.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan was quoted by an online news website Bdnews24.com as saying that Hannan, along with his accomplices Sharif Shahedul and Delwar Hossain Ripon, were executed at Kashimpur in Gazipur.

Earlier, Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid had rejected their plea for clemency against the death sentence.

The Supreme Court of Bangladesh had this year on March 19 upheld the death sentences for the HuJI chief and his two accomplices and later rejected their pleas to review the decision.

Hannan had also been sentenced to death for killing 10 people and injuring scores in a bomb attack on Chhayanaut's programme at Ramna Batamul on the Bangla New Year in 2001.

A Sylhet court had earlier sentenced Hannan and his two associates to death on December 23, 2008. The High Court upheld the death penalty on December 7 last year.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Kotalipara upazila in Gopalganj have vowed to resist the burial of Hannan in his ancestral home, reports the Dhaka Tribune.

Locals alleged that his father was against the independence of Bangladesh, and also flew the Pakistani flag after 1971.

A meeting was held recently at the house of Hiron Union Parishad chairman Munshi Ebadur Rahman where participants said they would resist if Hannan's body was brought to the area for burial.