A court in Satkhira has convicted 50 people including former BNP lawmaker Habibul Islam Habib and sentenced them to different terms in jail in a case filed over the attack on the convoy of then-opposition leader and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2002.
Chief Judicial Magistrate of Satkhira Humayun Kabir delivered the verdict in the case on Thursday. Among the convicts, 34 were present in the court when the judgment was delivered while the 16 others were shown absconding. Assistant Attorney General Adv SM Munir confirmed the matter.
All of the accused are activists and workers of the BNP, with the former MP and two others facing 10 years in prison.
Among the convicts, former MP Habibul Islam Habib and two others were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment while 47 others jailed for different terms. The minimum sentence is four years of imprisonment.
Our Satkhira correspondent added, on January 27, the court fixed February 4 for delivering judgment in the case.
The accused also include former mayor of Kalaroa Akhtarul Islam, former general secretary of Satkhira Bar Association Adv Abdus Sattar, Adv of Supreme Court Abdus Samad, three former UP chairmen Ashraf Hossain, Rakibul Islam and Rabiul Islam and other activists of BNP.
Tiger Khokon, one of the 50 accused, is serving jail term in another case. Sixteen others accused of the case, including former councillor Abdul Kader Bacchu, are absconding.
On August 30 in 2002, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the then opposition leader, was returning to Magura after visiting a freedom fighter's wife in Satkhira when her convoy got attacked in Kalaroa upazila of the district.
Hasina survived the attack relatively unscathed but many Awami League leaders and workers were injured along with some journalists.
Central leaders of the Awami League accompanying Hasina along with local leaders, activists and journalists were all injured in the attack. Moslem Uddin, the then general secretary of Kolaroa Awami League, later sought to file a case over the incident with the Kolaroa Police Station but the law-enforcing agency refused to record it.
Moslem Uddin then filed a complaint with the Satkhira Court on September 21 in 2014, more than a decade after the attack. The court subsequently ordered the police to start a case on the basis of the complaint.
On May 17 in 2015, police submitted a charge-sheet against 27 people, including Habibul Islam Habib, the then BNP MP. But the defendants appealed to the High Court after the trial opened on July 10 in 2017 after which the proceedings were stayed.
