Charges framed against top JMB leaders
Unb, Chandpur
As a special tribunal in the district town yesterday framed charges in explosives and murder cases against JMB top brass Abdur Rahman, Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai and Ataur Rahman Sunny, and their 12 sidekicks, the three militant leaders proudly admitted conducting bomb attacks."I ordered the bomb attacks...I don't accept your law. I ordered killing the judges. I confess my guilt," JMB supremo Rahman said at the crowded court when Judge Abdus Salam Sikdar wanted his statement on the charges. Rahman's second-in-command Bangla Bhai told the tribunal, "I don't seek justice under the British-made laws; I seek justice under the law of Allah." Bangla Bhai, also the operations commander of JMB's twin-militant outfit JMJB, said as a member of JMB Majlish-e-Shura, the lawmaking body for Islamic rule, he does not require any lawyer. Sunny said as the commander of Dhaka South region, he had ordered the bomb attack in Chandpur on the instructions of his leader Abdur Rahman, also his eldest brother. The court fixed April 30 for hearing the cases. Twelve other JMB cadres, who were arrested from different places in Chandpur after the August 17 and October 3 blasts there and at other places across the country, denied their involvement in the bombings. Chandpur police filed three cases against the 15 accused as one person was killed and 20 others were wounded in separate blasts there. As the JMB leaders were brought to the court in a prison van amid tight security at 10:55am, lawyers shouted slogans demanding their hanging for killing judges and lawyers. Earlier, Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai and Sunny were brought to Chandpur from Dhaka under tight security. They looked unrepentant after the indictment. Twelve other accused are: Abul Kalam Azad alias Rashed, Shamim Hossain, Kalam Hossain Duke, Mahfuz Khandaker, Masum Rahman, Rahmatullah, Abu Sufian alias Jewel, Osman Gani Sohag, Gofran, Rezwan Hasan Redwan, Ismail Hossain and Sohrab Hossain Billal. Most of them hailed from Kachua upazila of Chandpur district. Shamim Hossain told the court that he is a JMB member but was not involved in the bombing operations. He said that police blindfolded him and took his signature under section 164. Public Prosecutor (PP) Qamrul Islam, Additional PP Salimullah Selim and Assistant PP Joynul Abedin were present, among others, in the courtroom.
| 
