DHAKA, 1 March 2006 — Twenty-one militants were sentenced to death yesterday for their role in deadly Aug. 17 bombings which rocked Bangladesh.
The bombings, claimed by an outlawed militant group, killed three people and rocked a nation which had previously denied having a serious problem with extremism.
“Judge S.K.M. Anisur Rahman Khan today sentenced 21 men to death by hanging after they were found guilty of carrying out bomb blasts ... on Aug. 17, 2005,” said Amirul Islam, administrative officer at the court in the southwestern Jhenidah district.
Three of the defendants were sentenced in absentia following the three-month trial, he said.
“All 21, aged between 20 and 25, are members of the militant group Jamatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) and they were sentenced under the country’s Explosive Substances Act,” Islam said.
