HC grants bail to six convicts in Hasina motorcade attack case

State lawyers say they will seek a stay order on the decision

The High Court has granted bail to six convicts who were sentenced to four years in prison in the two-decade-old case over an attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s motorcade.

A panel of Justice Md Habibul Gani and Justice Ahmed Sohel issued the order on Thursday.

The convicts are Golam Rasul, Jahurul Islam, Toufiqur Rahman Sanju, Sahabuddin, Abdul Rakib Molla and Monirul Islam.

Lawyers Gazi Md Mohsin and Shahanara Parveen Bakul stood for the defence, while SM Muneer and SM Moniruzzaman, both additional attorneys general, represented the state. State lawyers said they would seek a stay order on the High Court decision.

In August 2002, Awami League chief Hasina, the then leader of the opposition, went to Satkhira Central Hospital to visit the wife of a freedom fighter who had been raped.

Her motorcade was attacked in front of the Kalaroa Upazila BNP office while she was on her way back to Dhaka. Aside from the bomb attack and vandalism of cars, gunshots were also fired at Hasina.

Central leaders of the Awami League accompanying Hasina along with local activists and journalists were all injured in the attack.

Moslem Uddin, the then general secretary of Kolaroa Awami League, later went to file a case over the incident at the Kolaroa police station but the law-enforcement agency refused to record it.

Moslem Uddin then filed a complaint with the Satkhira court in September 2014, more than a decade after the attack. The court subsequently ordered the police to start a case on the basis of the complaint.

Police pressed formal charges against 50 people, including Habibul Islam Habib, a BNP MP at the time, following an investigation. In February 2021, a Satkhira court sentenced the accused to jail for varying terms.

Habibul and two others were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Former Juba Dal General Secretary of Kolaroa Upazila Abdul Kader Bacchu was jailed for nine years, while the other 46 received six-year prison terms.