5 sentenced to death for Ctg naval base bomb attack

A Chattogram court has sentenced death penalty to five Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants for bombing a mosque inside Bangladesh Navy's Issa Khan Base in 2015.

The death row convicts are- Abdul Mannan, Ramjan Ali, Bablu Rahman, Abdul Gaffar and M Sakhawat Hossain.

Chattogram Anti-Terrorism Tribunal Judge Abdul Halim passed the verdict today (17 August). The court also fined them Tk50,000 each. Public Prosecutor Monoranjan Das confirmed the matter.

Meanwhile, separate charges filed under the Explosives Act in the same incident are pending in another court.

Earlier, the same judge fixed 17 August (Wednesday) to pass the verdict in the case filed over two blasts that took place at a mosque in the Issa Khan naval base after Juma prayers on Friday, in December 2015, that injured at least 24 people.

Naval Provost Marshal Commander M Abu Sayeed filed a case with the police on 3 September 2016, around nine months after the incident. Police filed the chargesheet with court on 5 October 2017, pressing charges against five persons.

According to the police investigation, banned militant outfit JMB was responsible for the attack. The bombing was carried out at the behest of its Chattogram regional coordinator Raisul Islam Khan.