Bangladesh SC puts on hold Mollah's execution

Mollah's lawyers, earlier today, held a 50-minute meeting with the death row convict inside Dhaka central Jail, and said their client was “mentally sound”.

They said Mollah asked them to file a review petition with the Supreme Court seeking the revision of its verdict. 

Two magistrates met Mollah on Sunday to know his decision about seeking the clemency but “he remained silent” despite their repeated queries, the Samokal newspaper reported. 

State minister for home Shamsul Haque Tuku said the time for executing the death penalty was set as Mollah “declined to seek the presidential clemency”.

Meanwhile, violence gripped parts of Bangladesh overnight killing at least five people as activists of Jamaat and its student wing Islamic Chhatra Shibir clashed with police and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

They set ablaze a number of vehicles including police vans.  Suspected Jamaat activists attacked the village home of Supreme Court judge SK Sinha at northeaster Sunamganj, setting it on fire.

The activists killed a woman and her minor daughter, throwing petrol bombs at a covered van in suburban Gazipur at the outskirts of the capital.

Among the dead was a local leader of ruling Awami League, who was hacked to death in southwestern Satkhira, where fierce clashes took place between Jamaat activists and BGB troops. 

At left 15 people were injured in the neighbouring Khulna district and three of them were said to be in a critical condition.