Bangladesh executes HuJI Chief Hannan over shrine attack

Bangladesh has executed banned Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his two associates last night for a attack on a shrine at Sylhet in 2004. The attack on saint Hazrat Shahjalal in Sylhet killed three people and injured 70 including the British high commissioner Anwar Chowdhury. 

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that Hannan was hanged at Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur along with his accomplice Sharif Shahedul alias Bipul at 10 PM local time. Hannan's associate Delwar Hossain Ripon was executed in Sylhet



jail. President Abdul Hamid had rejected their mercy petitions this week.

Earlier, the Supreme Court reconfirmed an earlier verdict of itself endorsing death penalty of Hannan and the two others for the 2004 attack.

HuJI was formed in 1992 by Bangladeshis who took part in the Afghan war against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The US has already designated HuJi as a foreign terrorist organization while Indian officials suspected the outfit's links in the Jaipur serial bombings and several other blasts.