The Supreme Court today upheld a portion of the High Court verdict that acquitted 11 persons in Awami League lawmaker Ahsanullah Master killing case.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed "no order" on a government petition seeking stay on the portion of the HC verdict.

Barrister Moudud Ahmed, a defence lawyer of the case, told reporters that the HC verdict which acquitted 11 persons in the case will remain in force following the SC order.

There is no legal bar to the release of 11 acquitted persons from jail, he added.

Gunmen killed Ahsanullah, a freedom fighter, and Omar Faruq Ratan, a student, in a staccato burst of fire on a rally at Noagaon near the lawmaker's house in Tongi on May 7, 2004.

The HC on June 15 confirmed the death penalty of six persons, including a central Jubo Dal leader, for killing the killing.

The HC commuted capital punishment of seven others to life imprisonment, upheld life term of two and acquitted 11 of the charges against them. It disposed of the appeals of two others as they died during the trial of the much-talked-about political killing.