Kolkata: The appeal and death references of smuggling 10 trucks loaded with weapons at the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd. (CUFL) jetty for ULFA.
A Bangladesh High Court bench of Justices Shahidul Karim and Fatima Najib on Wednesday scheduled the hearing of the case on October 18.
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The Supreme Court and the High Court bench of Bangladesh have fixed a date for the hearing of death reference and appeal in a case on smuggling 10 trucks loaded with weapons in CUFL jetty in Chittagong.
The 10 trucks full of weapons were seized in April 2, 2004, despite suspected efforts of certain “influential quarters” for their safe passage to ULFA in the presence of its military wing chief Paresh Barua during the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-Jamaat coalition government.
13 others, including Jamaat chief and the then Bangladesh Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami and the then State Home Minister Lutfozzaman Babar, have been sentenced to death for smuggling the 10 trucks loaded with weapons.
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The trucks were seized at the jetty of the CUFL near the Karnaphuli river while weapons were being loaded on them for delivery to ULFA.
As many as 4,930 sophisticated firearms of different types, 840 rocket launchers, 300 rockets, 27,020 grenades, 2,000 grenade-launching tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11.41 million bullets were recovered.
A special court in Chittagong handed the death sentence to Tareq Rahman, son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Jamaat top leader Ali Ahsan Muzahid, Lutfuzzaman Babar and the then chief of the two intelligence agencies, Brigadier General (retd) Abdur Rahim and Major General (retd) Rezzakul Haidar Chy.
The court will also announce its verdict on Bangladesh Nationalist Party de facto chief Tarique Rahman, staying in London for more than a decade to evade punishment after conviction for his involvement in August 24, 2004, grenade attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina leaving the latter injured and killing 30 Bangladesh Awami League leaders and activists.
Tareq Zia and Lutfuz Zaman Babar, the paid agents of Inter-Services Intelligence, are appealing against the death sentence in both cases.