Attempted smuggling of weapons to separatist groups in NE in 2004
DHAKA, Dec 18: A Bangladeshi High Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence of ULFA leader Paresh Baruah to life imprisonment and acquitted a former junior minister and five others in a 2004 case of attempted smuggling of weapons to the separatist outfit in Northeast India.
Baruah, who is believed to be living in China, was sentenced to death after a trial in absentia in 2014. His name also figures in the “most wanted” list of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Ten truckloads of weapons were seized in April 2004 despite alleged efforts of certain “influential quarters” for its safe passage to United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) hideouts in Northeastern India through Chattogram, which was then spelled as Chittagong.
The seized weapons included over 27,000 grenades, 150 rocket launchers, over 11 lakh ammunition, 1,100 sub machine guns and 11.41 million bullets.
The two-member High Court bench reduced Baruah’s death sentence to life imprisonment, said a government attorney at the bench.
The High Court bench comprising Justice Mostafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasrin Akhtar acquitted former state minister for home Lutfuzzaman Babar and six others, who were handed down capital punishment following the death reference hearing, he added.
The five others to escape the gallows are former director general of forces Intelligence (DGFI) retired major general Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, former managing director of a state-run fertilizer plant (CUFL) Mohsin Talukder, its general manager Enamul Hoque, former additional secretary of industries ministry Nurul Amin and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami.
Earlier on January 30, 2014, a special tribunal in the northeastern port city of Chattogram handed down the death penalty to 14 people, including two former ministers of the past BNP government, two ex-army generals and a top ULFA leader in the arms haul case.
The trial or lower court verdict had come nearly a decade after the accidental seizure of those 10 truckloads of smuggled-in weapons destined to the ULFA hideouts in Northeastern India through Bangladesh territory. (PTI)