Twelve out of 14 death convicts in the sensational Chittagong arms haul case have been shifted to the Chittagong Central Jail’s condemned cell.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s chief and former Industry Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami and former State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar are among them.
Chittagong’s Senior Jail Superintendent Sagir Mia said they were transferred to the death row after the court sentenced them to death on Thursday.
Two of the convicts are absconding.
A huge cache of arms and ammunition was seized from the state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd (CUFL) jetty in Chittagong while being offloaded from two fishing trawlers in the early hours of April 2, 2004.
Around 1,500 boxes containing submachine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, submachine carbines, Chinese pistols, rocket shells and launchers, hand grenades and bullets were seized.
Special privileges of eight of the convicts have been cancelled, the prison official said.
“If anyone is sentenced to death, he is stripped of ‘division facilities’,” Mia explained.
They will now be entitled to normal facilities like other inmates.
Other convicts shifted to the condemned cell are former NSI field officer Akbar Hossain Khan, former NSI Director (Security) Wing Commander (retd) Shahabuddin, former NSI Director General (DG) Brigadier General (retd) Md Abdur Rahim, former NSI DG Major General (retd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, former NSI Deputy Director (Technical) Major (retd) Liakat Hossain, former Managing Director of CUFL Mohsin Uddin Talukder and General Manager (administration) KM Enamul Haq, smugglers Hafizur Rahman, Deen Mohammad and their accomplice Haji Md Abdus Sobhan.
Indian separatist organisation ULFA’s military wing commander Paresh Barua, and former Industries Secretary Nurul Amin, too, were sentenced to death.
They were tried in absentia and are now absconding.
Source: Bd news24
