4 JMB men to die for killing Humayun Azad

A Dhaka court on Wednesday awarded death penalty to four members of the banned militant group Jama'atul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) in a case filed over the killing of Prof Humayun Azad in February 2004.

The death row convicts are Salehin alias Salahuddin, Anwarul Alam alias Anwar and Mizanur Rahman alias Minhaz and Nur Mohammad. Among them, Salehin and Nur are on the run.

Judge Al Mamun of Dhaka's Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court handed down the sentence in presence of two of the convicts at a packed courtroom.

The judge, in the verdict, said the prosecution was undoubtedly able to prove the charges brought against the accused and they were given the highest punishment for their heinous offences.

The punishment of the fugitives will be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender.

Ahead of the judgment, additional police forces were deployed around the court premises to avoid any untoward incidents.

Earlier the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of 42 prosecution witnesses, including complainant of the case.

On February 27, 2004, JMB activists stabbed 56-year-old Prof Azad when he was trying to hail a rickshaw to go home from Ekushey Book Fair at Bangla Academy in the capital.

After the attack, Azad was treated at the Combined Military Hospital for 26 days.

The government then sent him to Bangkok, Thailand for better treatment and he returned home after over 47 days.

A day after the murder attempt, Azad's brother Manjur Kabir filed an attempt to murder case with Ramna Police Station against some unnamed people.

On August 12, 2004, Azad, a professor of Dhaka University's Bangla department, died from what an autopsy said was a heart attack in Munich, Germany.

The case later turned into a murder case following his death.  The court framed charges against four accused on September 10, 2012.