A court in Chittagong yesterday jailed three operatives of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh for 14 years in two cases filed in connection with hurling bombs at judges in two courtrooms in 2005.

The convicts are Chittagong JMB Commander Jabed Iqbal alias Mohammed alias Aman Ullah, Shahadat Ali alias Masum Billah and Jahidul Islam alias Boma Mizan, said court sources.

The court of Chittagong Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Shahadat Hossain Bhuiyan delivered the verdict after it found them guilty. Jabed and Shahadat were present at the courtroom, Additional Public Prosecutor Humayun Kabir told The Daily Star.

Of the convicts, Mizan is on the run while Jabed and Shahadat are behind bars, he added.

Mizan, an explosive expert of the outfit, went into hiding since armed JMB members ambushed a prison van and snatched him along with two other militants from Mymensingh's Trishal on February 23, 2014.

Humayun said the court also fined the three JMB operatives Tk 5,000 each. In default, they would have to suffer six months more in jail.

The three JMB men were awarded seven years of imprisonment in each of the two cases. The sentences will run concurrently, he added.

According to court sources and case statements, JMB operatives carried out bomb attacks in courtrooms of Metropolitan Magistrate Akram Hossain and Joint District and Sessions Judge Syed Dildar Hossen in Chittagong on October 3, 2005.

Keeping bombs inside two hollow books, they threw those at the two judges in their courtrooms, but luckily the bombs did not explode.

Lawyers and police caught Shahadat at that time.

On the same day, two cases were filed with Kotwali Police Station against six JMB men in connection with the attacks.

Of the six accused, JMB chief Shaykh Abdur Rahman and his younger brother and JMB leader Ataur Rahman Sunny were executed. Another militant Abdul Malek Laltu died.

After the investigation, police submitted a charge sheet against Jabed, Shahadat and Mizan, and a court framed charges against them on July 25, 2007.

The recording of depositions in the two cases began on January 27 in 2008 and ended last year. Some 40 witnesses testified before the court in the cases, court sources added.