Five others and Lutfozzaman Babar were found not guilty in the ten-truck guns haul case

INN/Dhaka, @Infodeaofficial

In the 10-truck arms haul case in Chattogram, former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and five other individuals were given death sentences, however the High Court of Bangladesh cleared them. Additionally, the court remitted six convicted individuals’ death sentences to ten years in jail. Another death row inmate, Paresh Barua, the leader of the Indian separatist group United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), had his sentence lowered to life in prison, according to United News of Bangladesh (UNB).

The 10-truck guns haul case is thought to be the biggest arms smuggling event in Bangladeshi history. Investigators thought the ULFA was the intended recipient of the delivery. Ten truckloads of weapons were confiscated at the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited (CUFL) jetty on April 1, 2004, which is when the case began. The next day, two cases were filed with the Karnaphuli Police Station, one under the Special Powers Act and the other under the guns Act. In the guns case, fifty people were named as accused, while in the Special Powers case, fifty-two were named.

Judge SM Mujibur Rahman of Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions sentenced 14 individuals to death on January 30, 2014, in accordance with the Special Powers Act. According to UNB, they were also sentenced to seven years and life in jail, respectively, under two parts of the guns case.

ULFA chief Paresh Barua, former DGFI director Maj Gen (retd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, former NSI director general Abdur Rahim, former Jamaat-e-Islami president Motiur Rahman Nizami, and former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar were among the 14 people given death sentences. Smuggling under the Special Powers Act was the subject of the charges. Motiur Rahman Nizami, one of these prisoners, was put to death in 2016 for crimes against humanity.