Ramna Batamul blast's death row convict held in N’ganj

Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have arrested a fugitive death row convict in the 2001 Ramna Batamul carnage case, reports UNB.

Mufti Abdul Hye, 57, former amir and founder of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), was held from 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 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Kotalipara in Gopalganj in 2000, according to Rab.

Tipped off, a Rab-2 team conducted the drive in the Fatulla area, said assistant SP (media wing) at Rab headquarters Imran Khan. "Abdul was wanted in as many as 13 criminal cases."

He was also sentenced to life in jail in the August 21 grenade attack case, and wanted in two separate cases of murder, including that of former Finance Minister SM Kibria.

Arrest warrants were also issued against him in seven cases in Cumilla district.

Abdul had been absconding since 2006. Initially, he went into hiding in his parents-in-law's house in Cumilla district and worked as an assistant in his father-in-law's shop.

In 2009, he left Cumilla and moved into a rented accommodation in Narayanganj from where Rab detained him, said Imran.

On February 15, 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 June 23, 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 August 20, 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 76kg bomb near a shop adjacent to Sheikh Lutfur Rahman Government High School on July 20, 2000, where Hasina was supposed to address a rally on July 22.

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