Fourteen 'jihadists' were sentenced to death in Bangladesh on Tuesday for attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina more than two decades ago, a prosecutor said. The 2000 bomb plot was one of several attempts on Hasina's life in a wave of violence by Islamic extremists who were angry at her.
A fast-track court handed down death sentences to all 14 accused- five of them absconding- after they were found guilty of sedition and criminal conspiracy, prosecutor Abu Abdullah Bhuilyan told AFP. They planted two bombs in the grounds of a college where Hasina was due to address a rally. The devices were discovered and defused.
Prosecutor Bhuiyan said two among the 14 sentenced to death are brothers of HuJI leader Hannan, and another his brother in-law. Bangladesh sentences scores of people to death every year but only a handful of people are executed.
Bangladesh has hanged 23 people since 2013 while around 1,750 are on death row, according to a local rights group.