Sheikh Hasina who was then the opposition leader was about to finish a speech in front of thousands of protesters at an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 survived an attack at the rally that targeted her.
She, however, suffered a partial hearing loss in the attack. Her party’s women front chief and former president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman was killed in the blast
The special court awarded death penalty to 19 people including former junior home minister Lutfuzzaman Babar, ex-deputy education minister Abdus Salam Pintu and several former army intelligence officers, news agency PTI reported.
Zia’s son Rahman and 18 others were sentenced to life. Eleven others were jailed for different terms, the news agency reported.
"They (who are sentenced to death) will be hanged by neck until they are dead," Justice Nuruddin said.
51-year-old Tarique Rahman the acting BNP chairman is a declared “fugitive” and is reportedly living in London while his mother is serving a five-year imprisonment in a graft case.
The verdict comes ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in December.
(With inputs from PTI)