A Pabna court has sent 28 BNP leaders and activists to jail after rejecting their bail pleas in a case filed an armed attack on a train carrying Awami League President Sheikh Hasina 25 years ago.
Acting Judge Rustom Ali of Additional Sessions Judge Court 1 on Sunday issued the order in presence of the accused, said Public Prosecutor (PP) Aktaruzzaman Mukta.
The court also issued arrest warrants against the key accused in the case: Moklesur Rahman Bablu, former Ishwardy Municipality mayor and former president of BNP's Ishwardy municipality unit, Zakaria Pintu, present general secretary of the unit, and local party leader Humayun Kabir Dulal.
All of them were absent during the hearing.
PP Aktaruzzaman also said that the court would begin hearing the arguments in the case on Monday morning and fix a date to deliver the verdict afterwards.
Sheikh Hasina was conducting a nationwide campaign by railways, when the compartment she was on and the train came under a gun attack following its arrival at Ishwardy Junction in Pabna on September 23, 1994.
The then opposition leader, however, and the others survived the attack.
Railway police had filed the case against seven people, including Pintu, over the incident. But the investigation was halted during the BNP's rule at the time. It was reopened after the Awami League came to power in 1996.
Later, police, after concluding their investigation, submitted a charge sheet against 52 people, including Bablu, Pintu and many other leaders and activists of BNP, Juba Dal and Chhatra Dal.
After police filed the final probe report without any witness account, the court sent the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further investigation.
CID submitted its charge sheet three years later against the same 52 accused.
However, seven of the accused have died over the past 25 years.