15 Jamaat, BNP men get life term

A Rajshahi tribunal yesterday awarded life-term imprisonments to 15 leaders and activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the BNP in a case filed in connection with sabotage in Sirajganj during the BNP-Jamaat blockade of 2013.

Only one of the 15 accused, Shibir activist Abdul Hamid, was present in the dock when the Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal judge delivered the verdict.

The convicts were also fined Tk 10,000 each or else suffer six more months in prison, said Public Prosecutor Entajul Haque.

The tribunal also sentenced 13 others to five years' rigorous imprisonment in the same case and acquitted 32 people.

Ten of the 13 with five-year imprisonments were in court yesterday.

On December 11, 2013, the accused dislodged the steel plates of Fakirtola Bailey Bridge in Sirajganj during the blockade and clashed with police.

Jamaat men had gone on the rampage across the country when the news spread that Jamaat leader Quader Mollah would be executed. They enforced a hartal that coincided with the countrywide blockade called by the BNP-led opposition alliance.

They also removed several plates of three bailey bridges in Sirajganj and Pirojpur that day.

Sub-Inspector Faruk Hossain of Sirajganj Police Station filed the case against 40 people and later the police pressed charges against some 60 people.