14 to die in PM Hasina’s assassination attempt in Kotalipara

A special tribunal in Dhaka has sentenced 14 people to death in a case filed over an attempt to murder Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a rally in Gopalganj’s Kotalipara in 2000.

Judge Abu Jafar Md Kamruzzaman of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 1 passed the order on Tuesday.

The death-row convicts are-Md Azizul Haque alias Shanewaj, Md Lokman, Md Eusuf, Mochahab Hossain, Sheikh Md Enamul Haque, Md Mofijur Rahman, Md Mahmud Ajhar, Md Rasheduzzaman, Md Tarek, Md Wadud Sheikh, Md Anisul Islam, Sarwar Hossain Miah, Mawlana Amirul Islam and Mawlana Rafikul Islam Khan.

According to the case documents, army men recovered a 76-kg powerful bomb on July 21, 2000, from the premises of Sheikh Lutfor Rahman Government Ideal College when a podium was being made for the Prime Minister’s rally. Then sub-inspector Nur Hossain of Kotalipara Police Station filed the case under explosive substances act. ASP Abdul Kahhar Akand on November 15, 2001, filed charge-sheet in the case and the court on November 21, 2004, framed charges against the accused.

A total of 34 witnesses out of 50 were examined by the court in the case.