A death reference bench of the HC on July 24 fixed the date when Attorney General (AG) submitted the prayer for hearing of the case before the bench of Justice Ali Asgar Khan and Emdadul Haque on completion of the paper book for the Jhalakathi Judges killing case.

A Barisal court on May 29 awarded death sentence to JMB chief Abdur Rahman, his deputy Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and five other militants and acquitted one in the sensational Jhalakathi judges' killing case.

The others to walk the gallows are JMB Majlish-e-Shura members Ataur Rahman Sunny, Abdul Awal and Khaled Saifullah, suicide bom- bers Iftekhar Hasan Al Mamun and Asadur Rahman Arif. Of them, Arif is still at large.

Immediately after the lower court's verdict, the government took steps for quick disposal of the militants' death reference case as over 500 cases still await paper book (History of the case) preparation and death reference hearing in the HC.

Currently, paper books are being prepared for the cases of 2003. If the paper book for the Jhalakathi case were prepared in the usual manner, HC hearing on death sentences of the militants would not be held before 2009.

According to the government instructions, the attorney general's office in June petitioned the HC to give priority to preparation of the paper book for the death reference case. The HC granted the prayer on June 15. After completion of the paper book, the government moved to the death reference bench for hearing of the case.