Attack on PM Hasina: SC order tomorrow

The Supreme Court will deliver its order tomorrow on a petition filed by accused Rakibur Rahman challenging the High Court verdict that rejected his petition challenging the trial proceedings of a case filed over the attack on the motorcade of then opposition leader and now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Satkhira in 2002.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain yesterday fixed the date for delivering its order after concluding hearing on the petition filed by Rakibur for staying the High Court order.

Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokan appeared for the appellant while Additional Attorney General SM Munir represented the state during the hearing on the appeal.

Earlier on October 8 this year, the HC bench comprising Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah discharged a rule that questioned the trial proceedings of the case filed over the attack.

It also directed the trial court to dispose of this case within three months.

On September 24 this year, the state took the initiative to begin hearings over the issued rule.

Back on August 23, 2017, following a petition filed by Rakibur, a High Court bench stayed the trial proceedings of the case and issued a rule asking the state why trial proceedings against the accused should not be scrapped, according to the state lawyer.

Rakib, who is now out on bail, claimed that he was 10 years old when the incident took place. Therefore, the case should have proceeded against him under the Children Act 2013.

A decade after the incident, a freedom fighter named Moslem Uddin made a complaint on September 21, 2014.

The court ordered the police station concerned to record the complaint as an FIR.

The police submitted their charge sheet against 27 people, including Rakibur on May 17, 2015.

The court framed charges against the accused on July 10, 2017.

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina went to Satkhira's Kolaroa on August 30, 2002, to visit a freedom fighter's wife, who was raped.

Her motorcade came under attack while returning to Dhaka.