Attack on Hasina’s motorcade: former BNP MP, 2 others get 10 years’ imprisonment

A Satkhira court today sentenced former BNP lawmaker Habibul Islam Habib and two others to 10 years' imprisonment in a case filed over the attack on a motorcade of the then opposition leader and now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Satkhira in 2002.

The court also sentenced 47 others to different jail terms in the case.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Humayun Kabir delivered the verdict while 34 accused, out of 50, were present in the dock.

Sixteen others accused of the case, including former councillor Abdul Kader Bacchu, are absconding.

The accused includes Kalaroa's former mayor Akhtarul Islam, Satkhira Bar Association's former general secretary Advocate Abdus Sattar, Advocate of Supreme Court Abdus Samad, three former UP chairmen -- Ashraf Hossain, Rakibul Islam and Rabiul Islam -- and other activists of BNP.

On August 30, 2002, Hasina, the then opposition chief, was returning to Magura after visiting a freedom fighter's wife in Satkhira when her convoy was 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.

Kalaroa Freedom Fighter Mohammad Moslem Uddin filed the case against 27 men for the attack which was later dismissed due to not being recorded at the police station.

The case was reopened on October 15, 2014 and police pressed charges in court against 50 accused in this connection.