5 sentenced to death over Laldighi massacre

After long 32 years of the gruesome killing of 24 people attending Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina's rally in Chittagong in 1988, a Chattogram court on Monday sentenced five people to death in a case over the killing.

The court also sentenced them to 10 years' imprisonment each in the case. Each of the convicts was also fined Tk 50,000.

Chattogram acting special judge Mohammad Ismail Hossain pronounced the verdict.

The convicts are then Kotwali thana patrol inspector Gobinda Chandra Mondal, and then constables Mustafizur Rahman, Pradeep Barua, Mohammad Abdullah and Momtaz Uddin.

According to the prosecution, Awami League chief Hasina, also the leader of the then alliance of 15 opposition parties, was heading towards Laldighi Maidan in a procession to attend a scheduled rally against the misrule of military dictator Ershad.

Without any provocation, police opened fire on Hasina's motorcade and the people following it. Hasina survived the attempt on her life but 24 people died in the attack. More than 300 others were also injured.

A case was filed on 5 March 1992 by lawyer Shahidul Huda with the Chittagong Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court against 46 people, including then police commissioner Kazi Raqibul Huda.

Police submitted chargesheet against eight policemen on 3 November 1998. But three of the eight charge-sheeted accused died.