The residents of Chattogram on Friday remembered the victims of the 1988 massacre in which 24 people were killed after police opened fire on Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina’s motorcade.
The incident took place during the regime of military dictator HM Ershad. Residents of the district have been observing January 24 as the ‘Mass Killing Day’.
This year, on January 20 a court sentenced five people to death in a case filed over the incident.Hasina, also the leader of the then alliance of 15 opposition parties, was heading towards Laldighi Maidan to attend a scheduled rally against the misrule of military dictator Ershad.
Without any provocation, police opened fire on her 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 injured.
A case was filed on March 5, 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 November 3, 1998. But three of the eight charge-sheeted accused died.
A memorial plague was set up in city’s court building premises in memory of the people killing on that day.
