Dipan murder case: Death reference documents of 8 militants have reached the High Court

News Desk: The death reference documents of eight militants, including dismissed Army Major Syed Ziaul Haque, who was sentenced to death in the murder case of Faisal Arefin Dipon, owner of Jagriti Prakashan, have reached the High Court. Supreme Court Special Officer Mohammad Saifur Rahman confirmed the information to reporters on Wednesday (February 18th).

He said the death references and case documents of the accused in the Dipan murder case have come to the High Court from the Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal in Dhaka. Usually, the death sentence of the convicts requires the permission of the High Court before the execution.

That is known as Death Reference. The hearing was held when the accused filed an appeal against the death sentence as well as the death reference of the trial court. Now if these death references are heard on priority basis then the concerned office has taken necessary steps. Dipan murder case on February 10, Ziaul Haque and eight other militants were sentenced to death by the Dhaka Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal Judge.

Mojibur Rahman. All the eight accused in the case were sentenced to death as the maximum punishment and fined Tk 50,000. Dipan was killed on October 31, 2015 at the office of his publishing house Jagriti in the capital's Aziz Super Market. He was strangled.

The eight accused in the case are: Dismissed Major Syed Ziaul Haque Zia, Akram Hossain alias Hasib alias Abir alias Adnan alias Abdullah, Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Samir alias Imran, Abdur Sabur Samad alias Sujan alias Raju, Khairul Islam alias Jamil alias Abu Siddique Sohail alias Shakib alias Sajid alias Shahab, Mozammel Hussain alias Simon alias Shahriar and Sheikh Abdullah alias Jubayer alias Zayed alias Jabed alias Abu Omayer.

The court sentenced all of them to death last Wednesday (February 10). Among the accused, Zia and Akram are fugitives. The rest have been arrested and are in jail. They are all members of the banned militant group Ansar al-Islam.