14 militants get death sentence over plot to kill Bangladesh PM Hasina in 2000

DHAKA: A court in Dhaka on Tuesday sentenced 14 militants to death over a failed attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2000.

The convicts were brought from the jail to the court during the announcement of the verdict. Security was beefed up in and around the court. Judge Abu Zafar Md Kamruzzaman of Dhaka Speedy Tribunal 1 passed the verdict after they were found guilty of sedition and criminal conspiracy.

The convicts who received the death sentence are Mafizur Rahman, Mahmud Azhar, Wadud Sheikh alias Gazi Khan, Rasheduzzaman, Azizul Haque, Lokman, Tareque, Yusuf alias Moshab Moral, Moshab Hasan alias Rashu, Sheikh Md Enamul Haque, Sarwar Hossain, Anisul Islam, Rafiqul Islam Khan and Amirul Islam. They are Islamist extremists belonging to the HuJI (Harkatul Jihad al Islami) and JMB (Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh).

In 2000, police found two 76-kilogram bombs in a school field at Kotalipara where Hasina, on her first term as prime minister, was scheduled to address an election campaign rally.

The bombs were discovered while a rally stage was being set up on the Sheikh Lutfur Rahman College ground in Kotalipara, the electoral seat of the Awami League chief. Hasina was expected to address the rally two days later.

After the discovery of the bombs, three cases were filed: an attempted murder, a conspiracy to assassinate the prime minister and sedition and the use of explosives.

Hasina’s government also executed five top leaders of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, between 2013 and 2016 over war crimes during the country’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

Since then, a major crackdown against homegrown Islamist groups has seen more than 100 extremists killed in raids by police and more than 1,000 suspected militants arrested.