11 get 20 years for attempt to kill Bangla PM

Dhaka, Oct. 29: A Bangladeshi court on Sunday sentenced 11 people to 20 years imprisonment for attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 28 years ago at her family residence, media reports said.

The Dhaka court also handed down life imprisonment to the accused for blasting bombs on the same day in 1989 at the house of Ms Hasina, Dhaka Tribune reported.

The court imposed a fine of $240 each on the convicts — members of the Bangladesh Freedom Party (BFP) which was behind the killing of Bangladesh’s first President and the Father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, the report said.

Judge Mohamed Zahidul Kabir of Dhaka Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court delivered the verdict, the report said.

One of the accused, Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Abdur Rashid, had previously been sentenced to death for the murder of Bangabandhu, father of Hasina, 70.

The convicts were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each in two separate charges, a total of 20 years, the report said.

One accused was acquitted as the charges brought against him were not proved.

Seven or eight armed members of the BFP came to the residence of Bangabandhu in Dhanmondi arwa on August 11, 1989 on two three-wheelers, the report said. Bangabandhu, first President of Bangladesh, was assassinated in 1975.