Govt to petition for jail killing hearing soon
November 3, 2009
The government says it will petition the Supreme Court to hear its leave to appeal in the Jail Killings case once the appeals proceedings in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman assassination case are complete.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, honouring the memory of the four national leaders killed in Dhaka Central Jail on Nov 3 1975, said the case would be revived.
Addressing a programme at the Bangabandhu Conference Centre Tuesday in observance of ‘Jail Killing Day’, she called for a united effort against “the politics of killing”.
“Retrials in the Jail Killings case will be held. We must be aware of such sabotage. We want to stop the politics of killing for ever.”
The slain leaders—acting president of Bangladesh Syed Nazrul Islam, prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed and ministers M Mansur Ali and AHM Qamruzzaman—were senior figures in the wartime cabinet of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and in the first years of government after independence.
They were killed in Dhaka Central Jail in 1975, less than three months after Mujib himself was assassinated.
The previous Awami League government had revived the trial of the Jail Killings case after coming to power in 1996.
A verdict was announced on Oct 20, 2004 during the tenure of the BNP-ledalliance government, sentencing 15 of the 20 accused.
Of them, three were sentenced to death in the case. Later the High Court upheld the death sentence of just one.
But the current Awami League government has sought to appeal the High Court verdict.
“The previous government tried to derail the Jail Killings case,” state minister for law Qamrul Islam told reporters at another programme at Dhaka Central Jail Tuesday to honour the memories of the four.
“We will press for the hearing on our leave to appeal petition as soon as the Bangabandhu murder case is resolved,” he said.
Home minister Sahara Khatun was also present.
“No government other than ours has paid respect to the four national leaders,” Khatun told reporters.
“After killing Bangabandhu they found out the four leaders who directed the liberation war, arrested them and killed them,” she said.
State minister for home Shamsul Haque Tuku, MP Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, inspector general of prisons Brigadier General Mohammed Ashraful Islam Khan and Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner A K M Shahidul Haque also attended the programme at the central jail.
They placed wreaths at the foot of a Kamini tree planted by Sheikh Mujib when he had been in jail and at the spot where the four leaders were slain.
Tuku said the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum and the monument on the four national leaders will be inaugurated on Dec 16, the Victory Day.
Earlier, in the morning, Hasina also paid tributes to the four national leaders visiting their grave at Banani graveyard.
AL leader Mohammad Nasim, son of another slain leader Monsur Ali, said: “If the Bangabandhu assassination trial killing is concluded many of the killers would be brought to justice since the same people were involved in both the killings.”
Source: bdnews24.com
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