in Bangladesh, was awaiting his death sentence Tuesday, August 28, for killing an evangelist.
Commander Mohammad Salauddin was convicted by a Dhaka Court of killing Ridoy Roy by
slitting his throat in the northern town of Sharishbari. "Salauddin pleaded guilty to the murder charges. He confessed to a magistrate that he slaughtered Roy on March 23, 2003. It was
a pre-planned murder," Prosecutor Shahin Ahmed Khan said in published remarks.
"In his written statement, Salauddin said he killed Roy because he was engaged in converting
Muslims into Christians by showing films on Jesus," he added. He and JMB leader Hafez Mahmud were already sentenced to death on November 9, 2006 for the murder of another Christian convert from Islam, Abdul Gani Gomes, in September 2004.
Christian rights group Open Doors, which investigated the case, said a murder case was filed
with Sarishabari Police Station following the 2003 incident, but the suspects remained at large.
A breakthrough came when more than two years after that murder when Salauddin was reportedly apprehended for his alleged involvement in a wave of bombings. During his trial, he confessed to the killing of Hridoy, explained Open Doors, which has been closely monitoring the trial.
ORDERED KILLING
He reportedly said he got his orders from self-styled JMB President Sheik Abdur Rahman, who
was hanged in April last year along with six other top JMB militants. "Fourteen prosecution witnesses incriminated Salehim for the murder," Open Doors explained.
Salauddin was allegedly unrepentant saying, "I will not appeal to the court, nor ask for mercy.
I am delighted to have killed Hridoy, an enemy of Islam."
He stressed he would "appeal instead to Allah to judge those who are involved in giving me this verdict. Killing is permitted by [the] Quran for those who convert Muslims to Christianity. Hridoy was killed upon Allah’s orders," according to statement distributed after the hearing.
Hridoy Roy worked through the Christian Life Bangladesh (CLB) group as an evangelist. However "he earned the ire of Muslim fanatics in the neighborhood when he showed the Jesus film despite threats," Open Doors said. The group added that it has sent aid to Hridoy’s family through CLB last year, "in order to help rebuild the martyr’s house."
CHRSTIANS CONCERNED
News of the death sentence came as Christians remained on high alert as authorities in Bangladesh lifted a curfew Tuesday, August 28, imposed on the capital Dhaka and five other cities. The curfew was imposed last week after protests by students of the Dhaka University against the presence of army troops at a campus football match spread across the country, killing one man and injuring around 300 people, officials said earlier.
Muslims in the country’s tense Nilphamari district have reportedly forced 27 recently baptized Christians to return to Islam, while another 14 converts still face incessant pressure to return to become Muslims.
Earlier, high-ranking police officers and government officials provided temporary security for a group of Christian converts beaten in the region. Christian Freedom International and other rights groups have expressed concerns about what they see as growing Muslim extremism in the country. (With BosNewsLife reporting and research).
