The High Court’s decision to commute the sentences of the murderers who unleashed a flood of blood at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan to life imprisonment has exposed the face of the law and order of this country for the last 10 months.
The death sentences of “jihadi” terrorists convicted of 22 brutal murders were commuted.
What kind of justice is this? What kind of law is this? Where innocent people, including local and foreign citizens, were shot and hacked to pieces, in whose interest is this conspiracy to save the lives of murderers?
The true face of this illegal government of Mohammad Yunus is clear today. They are the sponsors of Islamic militants. They are the protectors of the bloodthirsty monsters of the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and JMB.
Have you forgotten that horrific night of 2016? Didn’t you see the piles of dead bodies of citizens of Italy, Japan and India inside the upscale eatery?
Didn’t you pay the price for the sacrifice of police officers? The policy of this government is “protecting militants is our first duty”.
The Awami League has condemned the latest verdict that commuted the sentences. Party President and five-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently said Yunus should be ashamed of visiting Japan as he continues to patronise the Islamists and jihadists to cling to power.
Since capturing power, Yunus has released top extremist leaders like Jasimuddin Rahmani and several hundred others, has not arrested any of the militants who escaped prisons since the July riots, released hundreds of radicals of Jamaat-e-Islami, Hefazat-e-Islami, as well as a convicted war criminal.
Yunus is now labelled as the Mob King, as he has been patronising the Islamist mobs in Dhaka and elsewhere religiously to suppress the secular quarters and eliminate the Awami League, with most of the top leaders and policymakers of the party staying abroad and over 100 parliamentarians among 1,50,000 who have been jailed and tortured.
A long tally of 80,000 false and fictitious cases, denial of bail, flawed investigation, and media trial imply that the Jamaat-controlled, West-backed interim government has a sinister plan to exterminate the Awami League and sell out Bangladesh by turning it into a battlefield for the Islamists.
Bargaining for power in exchange for blood
This verdict is not a trial, but rather a pact between Yunus’ gang and Islamic groups. What message did they send by reducing the sentences of the militants?
“Kill, let rivers of blood flow, we are behind.”
During this government’s tenure, militancy has not only been tolerated but has also received state support. The court verdict is now being written at the instructions of the government. The terrorists of the new JMB (Islamic State) avoided the gallows because the people in power are also part of the same well-funded militant network.
Recently, all the accused in the Bogura Shia mosque attack case were acquitted. The muezzin was killed, and 10-12 people were injured as a suicide bomber of the Islamic State carried out the attack on November 26, 2015, seven months before the Gulshan carnage.
International conspiracy
The Holey Artisan attack was a planned massacre to put Bangladesh on the international terrorism map. And today, the Yunus Gang is protecting the masterminds of that attack. The real goal is to sustain Islamic militancy, so that the Western world identifies Bangladesh as a “terrorist state”. The Yunus-led government is a servant of that agenda.
The policy of this government is “protecting militants and protecting power”.
They know that it is impossible for them to survive without the support of Islamic groups. That is why the court verdict is also written by bloody hands from Islamabad, Doha, Kuala Lumpur, and Ankara.
A comfortable life in prison for the murderers in exchange for the death of 22 lives: Is this justice? Or is the death of justice the policy of this government?
Blood demand unquenched
The Holey Artisan’s grief is still fresh. The families of the martyrs are victims of extreme injustice in the High Court verdict today. But this verdict is not the last word. The people’s court is great. The judgement of history is great. The blood demand against this government and its militant associates will never be false.
The fight for justice in the struggle against militancy continues even today. And in that fight, it is not these executioners who will have the last laugh, but history.
Commando operation: July 2, 2016
At 8:45pm on July 1, the ISIS militants attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery on Gulshan Road 79. Local police responded soon but were thwarted by the attackers, who used AK-22 rifles and sharp weapons to slaughter 20 people.
RAB, SWAT and commanders joined in to tackle the situation. After a detailed observation, at 7:30am, a joint commando team comprising the army, navy, police, RAB and BGB made final preparations for the โOperation Thunder Boltโ operation at the restaurant.
The commando force began the operation at 7:45am. Members of the armed team entered the restaurant. Gunfire was heard at this time.
At 8:15am, six people, including women and children, were seen coming out of the restaurant for the first time. A foreign national from a nearby building recorded it on his mobile phone.
North South University teacher Abul Hasnat Reza Karim and Canadian-Bangladeshi Tahmid Hasib Khan, who were seen in close contact with the militants, came out of the restaurant with others.
At 8:55am, the operations team took control of the building. The intelligence team started searching for explosives. Shortly after, the intelligence team started collecting evidence.
The operation ended at 9:15am. The commando operation ended the bloody hostage crisis that had lasted for about 12 hours at the Holey Artisan bakery in Dhaka’s Gulshan.
The victims
At 10am on July 2, it was reported that 13 people, including 4 foreigners, were rescued alive. Police said that five unidentified bodies were found inside the restaurant.
At 1:30pm, the ISPR held a press conference and announced that 20 bodies had been recovered.
In the grisly attack, 22 people, including 17 foreign nationals, were killed: nine Italian citizens, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladeshi-American dual citizen, two Bangladeshis and two police officers.
The nine Italians are Christian Rossi, Claudia Maria D’Antona, Marco Tondat, Vincenzo D’Alesstro, Simona Monti, Maria Riboli, Nadia Benevette, Adele Puglisi and Claudio Cappelli.
The seven Japanese who died were Makoto Okamura, Hiroshi Tanaka, Yoki Sakai, Nobuhiro Korusaki, Rui Shimodaira, Hideki Hashimoto and Koya Ogasawara.
The deceased were Bangladeshi-American dual citizen Abinta Kabir, Indian citizen Tarishi Jain, and two Bangladeshi citizens Ishrat Jahan Akhand and Faraj Ayaz Hossain.
Saiful Chowkidar and Zakir Hossain Shaon, two staff members of Holey Artisan, died while undergoing treatment in the hospital.
The two police officers who died of injuries from a militant attack were Assistant Police Commissioner Md Rabiul Karim and Police Inspector Salauddin Ahmed Khan.
The butchers
The attackers were Rohan Imtiaz, Khairul Islam Payel, Samiul Mobashir, Shafiqul Islam Ujjwal and Nibras Islam.
Eight planners, trainers, and weapons suppliers who were involved in the attack were killed in various operations. They are Tamim Chowdhury, Marjan, Sarwar Jahan Manik, Basharuzzaman, Tanvir Kaderi, Tarek Raihan and Chhoto Raihan.
Out of a total of 21 people, police pressed charges against eight militants. They are Rakibul Hasan, Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, Rashedul Islam, Sohel Mahfuz, Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan, Hadisur Rahman Sagar, Mamunur Rashid Ripon and Shariful Islam Khaled.
On November 27, 2019, Judge Md Mujibur Rahman of the Dhaka Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal acquitted one person and sentenced seven people to death.
On October 11, 2023, the High Court concluded the hearing on death references (approval of death sentences) of seven people and the appeal against the acquittal.
After the August 5 coup and student-led jihadist attack, on October 30 last year, a High Court division bench comprising Justice Shahidul Karim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman announced the verdict, commuting the death sentences of seven convicts.
They are Jahangir Hossain alias Rajiv Gandhi, Aslam Hossain alias Rash, Abdus Sabur Khan, Rakibul Hasan Rigyan, Hadisur Rahman, Shariful Islam alias Khaled and Mamunur Rashid Ripon.
The High Court, in the full text of its verdict released on June 17, said it sentenced seven convicts to imprisonment until death, considering the brutality of the 2016 terrorist act and the damage it caused to the country’s global image.
“Considering the brutality of the murders, the terrorists’ overall cruel behaviour, and the tarnishing of Bangladesh’s image abroad, we believe justice will be served by sentencing each of the seven convicts to life imprisonment [till natural death],” the court said in the 229-page judgement.
Demolition of memorial
Soon after the August coup, the โDeepto Shapathโ sculpture, built in memory of the police officers killed in the Holey Artisan attack, was demolished. A poster of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir was seen there.
In 2018, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police inaugurated the sculpture in front of the old Gulshan police station.
When journalists approached Gulshan police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mazharul Islam, he seemed reluctant to talk and said that the incident of breaking the statue was old.
He thinks that it was broken sometime after the fall of the government on August 5. โRecently, someone took a picture and posted it on social media, and the discussion started on the issue,โ said the callous officer.
English