Rangpur Correspondent

Rangpur Metropolitan BNP Member Secretary Advocate Mahfuz Un Nabi Don, District Member Secretary Anisur Rahman Laku, Metropolitan Jubo Dal Senior Joint Convener Zahir Alam Nayan, District Jubo Dal Vice President Tarek Hasan Sohag and Jubo Dal activist Arif Hossain have been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 taka for another 6 months in default of payment, the court ordered.

Judge Krishnakant Roy of Additional District and Sessions Court-1 of Rangpur, Monday, November 20, gave this verdict. Two other defendants in the case, former general secretary of district BNP Raich Ahmed and general secretary of district Jubo Dal, Samsul Haque Jhantu, died, and the court acquitted them from this case.

Lawyer for the state, Abdus Sattar, said that on May 19, 2013, the police arrested the accused while they were preparing to set fire to the Dhaka coach on the Rangpur Polytechnic Institute ground, the night before the strike. At this time, various equipment including 56 chocolate bombs were recovered from them. The then SI Chandan Kumar Chakraborty of Kotali police station arrested them and filed a case under the Explosives Act.

After the testimony and cross-examination of 14 witnesses, the court gave this verdict against them. Mahfuz Un Nabi Don, Member Secretary of Metropolitan BNP, was present during the verdict. On the other hand, Aftab Hossain, the lawyer of the defendant, said that the nation was shocked by this verdict motivated by political motives. The government is trying to extend its power by using the courts to convict BNP activists in false cases. The verdict will be appealed.