Shawdesh Desk:

The Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal in Khulna on Tuesday sentenced two members of banned extremist outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh to 17 years and six months imprisonment in a case under Explosive Substances Act filed in 2020.

Judge Rozina Akhter of the tribunal announced the verdict in a crowded courtroom in presence of the JMB men after examining 22 witnesses, public prosecutor Md Showkat Ali Suza said.

Court officials said that police arrested two youths near Gallamari area in the city with huge bomb making materials on January 25, 2020.

Momtazul Islam, officer-in-charge of Sonadanga Police Station, filed a case on the next day against them.

The convicted youths are Momtazul Islam Rafi, 26, son of Md Rezaul Karim hailed from Shibganj upazila in Bogura district and Nur Mohammad Anik, 27, son of Abdur Rahman of Ghior upazila in Manikganj.

They primarily confessed to their involvement in making Improvised Explosive Devices and bomb attacks at a police car garage at Arongghata area in the city on December 5 in 2019 as the active activists of JMB.

On August 22 in 2020, the then DB inspector of KMP Enamul Haque pressed charge-sheet to Khulna chief metropolitan magistrate court accusing the two JMB men.