Siddique Islam (National News Service) Dhaka, Sunday, April 17: a Bangladesh court has sentenced 22 people to death and six others to life in jail Saturday for killing an opposition lawmaker Ahsanullah Master.
The lawmaker, Ahsanullah Master, a senior member of the country’s main opposition Awami League, was gunned down on May 7, 2004 while addressing a local conference of the Sweccha Sehbak League near his residence at Tongi.
The Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal judge Shahed Nooruddin proclaimed the 61-page verdict amidst tight security in a jam-packed courtroom at 12:08pm. The court, however, acquitted two other charge-sheeted accused.
Three months after his death, Ahshanullah’s son Mohammad Zahid Ahsan Russel took his father’s seat in parliament.
The trial was conducted and the verdict was announced despite the absence of 18 of the accused.
Leader of the Opposition in parliament Sheikh Hasina has termed the judgement in Ahsanullah Master murder case 'incomplete' and said the persons who 'conspired, planned and ordered' the killing of the Awami League (AL) lawmaker have escaped punishment.
"It was a planned political killing and we believe high-ups of the BNP-Jamaat-led ruling coalition were involved in it," said Hasina, also president of the main opposition AL, at a press briefing Saturday at her office in the city.
The government has arranged trial of some local leaders of the BNP who were directly involved in the killing of the lawmaker from Tongi, she said. "But it was not possible for local leaders to kill such a popular political figure without green signal from the BNP high command," she added. (End/si)
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |