The High Court on Wednesday acquitted all 46 accused including former BNP MP Habibibul Islam Habib in a case filed over the attack on the motorcade of then then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina in Satkhira district on August 30, 2002.

The HC bench of Justice Muhammad Mahbub Ul Islam and Justice Mubina Asaf passed the order, reports UNB.

Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Advocate Aminul Islam stood for the petitioner while deputy attorney general Mujibur Rahman represented the state.

On April 18, 2003, Judge of the Satkhira Special Tribunal-3 Biswanath Mandal, sentenced four people including former BNP MP Habib, to life imprisonment in the case.

The court also sentenced 42 accused to seven years jail.

Later, they filed separate petitions seeking acquittal from the case.

In 2002, then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina's convoy came under attack when she was returning to Magura after visiting a freedom fighter's wife in Satkhira's Kalaroa.

Although Hasina survived the attack at least 12 people, including Awami League leaders and journalists, were injured, according to the case statement.

Three separate cases were filed in this connection in 2014.

Among the cases, a case was filed under the Penal Code.

Satkhira Chief Judicial Magistrate on February 3, 2021, sentenced former MP Habib and three others to ten years jail in the case. The BNP leader was acquitted in the case while the trial proceeding of other accused in the case was underway.

Meanwhile, in 2023, a court sentenced four people including former MP Habib to life imprisonment while 44 others to seven years jail under the two cases-one under the Arms Act and another under the Explosive Substances Act.

FP/MI