District and Sessions Judge ANM Bashirullah gave the verdict.

The judge acquitted seven others as the charges brought against them were not proved.

The lifers are Mohammad Ayub, Ershad, Shahidul Islam Khokan, Ibrahim, Elias, Diderul Islam Kanchan, Bakhter, Shamsul Islam Shamsu, Abul Hashem, Rashid Ahmed, Mohammad-bin-Kashem and Nazrul Islam, court sources said.

All the convicts hailed from Rangunia upazila. Ayub, now in jail, is wanted in 24 criminal cases with Rangunia Police Station. Two other accused died during the trial.

The prosecution story, in short, is that the convicts gauged out the eyes of Kabir Ahmed and Sabur Ahmed, both sons of Abdus Sobhan, in March, 1991 as they filed a case accusing them of robbery.

Later, Soban filed another case against them in this connection.

The miscreants threatened Sobhan with death as he refused to withdraw the cases.

They than kidnapped and killed him on October 30, 1991 while he was returning home from a local market.