10 to die for plotting to kill Sheikh Hasina

Judge Momtaz Begum of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 2 gave the verdict on Sunday.

The death row convicts are Wasim Akhter, Md Yousuf, Md Rashed Driver, Sheikh Forid, Hafez Tarequl Alam Bodor,

Maulana Abu Bakkar, Mufti Shofiqur Rahman, Maulana Yahya, Mufti Abdul Hye and Mannan Abdul Rouf.

The court said the convicted can be executed either by hanging or by firing squad as per the order of the High Court.

The court also sentenced one to life imprisonment and three others to 14 years jail in the attempted murder case.

They were fined him Tk10,000 each, in default, they will have to serve an extra year in prison.

The court acquitted 10 others from the charge.

The tribunal sentenced nine people to 20 years imprisonment and fined them Tk20,000 each in an explosive case filed over the incident.

Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh chief Mufti Abdul Hannan was also an accused in the case. Hannan was hanged on April 12 over the grenade attack on former British envoy Anwar Choudhury in Sylhet.

A total of 89 out of 64 prosecution witnesses testified before the court in the case.

The case dockets say police on July 20, 2000, seized 76kg of explosives planted near Kotalipara Sheikh Lutfar Rahman Ideal Government College where Sheikh Hasina, who was prime minister then, was scheduled to address a rally two days later.

In this connection, Kotalipara police filed a case under the Explosive Substances Act, and later pressed charges against 16 people on April 8, 2001.

A supplementary charge sheet was filed on June 29, 2009 when the Awami League came to power again, accusing nine more people in the case.

A Gopalganj court recorded the depositions of 43 witnesses out of a total of 89, but the case was transferred to the speedy trial tribunal in Dhaka in September 2010 for expedited trial.

Following the development, the speedy tribunal started recording depositions again.