Gazipur: Family members of death-row convict Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan met him at Kashimpur High Security Central Jail in Gazipur.

Around 6:00am on Wednesday, four members of Hannan’s family arrived at the jail gate.

Earlier, the prison authorities on Tuesday afternoon asked the family members to meet Mufti Hannan. After getting jail’s call, the family started from Gopalganj at about 9:00pm for Gazipur.

Mufti Hannan’s wife Ruma Akhter, daughters Naznin and Nishat, and his elder brother Aliuzzaman, came out of the jail gates at about 8:15am.

Aliuzzaman told the reporters at jail gates, ‘Whatever happened is Allah’s will. All the charges brought against him (Mufti Hannan) are baseless.’

During their visit, Mufti Hanna requested his brother Aliuzzaman to look after his daughters.

The Kashimpur Central Jail Jailor Bikash Raihan said four family members of Hannan met the death-row convict before for last time before his hanging for grenade attack.

The jail’s senior jail super Mohammand Mizanur Rahman said the jail authorities began to take all the necessary preparations to execute Huji chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his associate Sharif Shahedul Bipul on 11 April.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday afternoon, stringent security measures have been taken in and around the jail ahead of the execution.

Earlier, on 27 March, the three Huji men, including its chief, filed separate petitions seeking presidential clemency.

On 19 March, the Appellate Division upheld the death sentence of Mufti Hannan, Delwar Alias Ripon and Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul after hearing the review petitions filed by the three death-row convicts. It released the full text of its verdict on March 21.

Among them, Mufti Hannan and Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul have been kept at Kashimpur Central Jail while Delwar Alias Ripon is in Sylhet Central Jail.

On 7 December, 2016, an SC bench, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, upheld the death penalty of the three in the case rejecting appeals filed by the Huji chief and Bipul challenging the High Court verdict that had upheld their death sentence awarded by the tribunal.

In 2004, then British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury came under a grenade attack while coming out of Hazrat Shahjalal’s shrine in his hometown Sylhet. The envoy and 40 employees of Sylhet district administration were injured in the attack.