DHAKA, Oct 9, 2023 (BSS) - A court here today sentenced 15 leaders and activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) including the party chairperson's advisor Habibur Rahman Habib and party vice-chairman and former lawmaker M. Shahjahan to four years imprisonment each, in two separate cases.

As the convicts stood before the court today, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Jasim sentenced them to two years imprisonment, each, for setting fire on a bus, and two years more for obstructing police from doing their work.

The court also fined them Taka 10,000 each, in default, to suffer one month more in jail.

The remaining convicts are - Former lawmaker Mohammad Ahsan Habib Lincoln, BNP's village government affairs assistant secretary M. Belal Ahmed, joint publicity secretary M. Shamimur Rahman Shamim, Tauhidul Islam Tuhin, Monirul Haque Monir, M. Didarul Islam, Masud Rana, Abdur Razzak, Ziaul Islam Jewel, M. Arif, M. Nishan Mia, M. Mahmudul Hasan Sumon and Mozammel Haque.

On the other hand, the court acquitted four more accused of the case- M. Kofil Uddin, Din Islam, Mohammad Mamun and Aminul Islam, as the charges against them were not proved.

According to the case, On January 4, 2015, around 5:30pm, a group of BNP men set a bus to fire at Pragati Sarani under Bhatara Police Station and create a chaos, during the ongoing blockade of the 20-party alliance to deliberately obstruct the police from doing their work.
 
Sub-Inspector Nazrul Islam of Bhatara police station filed this case on the same day.

Charge sheets were pressed against Habibur Rahman Habib and 19 others on May 12 of that year.