Shawdesh desk:

A Satkhira court has jailed 50 people, including former BNP lawmaker Habibul Islam Habib, for varying terms in a case filed over the 2002 attack on Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina’s convoy in Kolaroa.

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

All of the accused are activists and workers of the BNP, with the former MP and two others facing 10 years in prison.

On January 27, the court fixed February 4 for delivering its judgment in the case.

The convicts also include 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.

Tiger Khokon, one of the 50 accused, is serving jail time in another case. Sixteen others accused of the case, including former councilor Abdul Kader Bacchu, are absconding.

On Aug 30, 2002, Prime Minister Hasina, the then opposition chief, 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 along with some journalists were injured.

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

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