Bangladesh court sentences 19 to death over 2004 attack

In Bangladesh, a court has awarded death sentence to 19 people including former deputy Home Minister for their role in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2004.

Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia's fugitive son and political heir Tarique Rahman has been sentenced to life. He leads BNP from exile after Zia was jailed in February this year. Zia was not made an accused in the case. Special court Judge Shahed Nuruddin yesterday also awarded life sentence to other 18



persons, while giving different jail terms to 11 others  in the case. 

An attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, targeted  Mrs Hasina, the then opposition leader. While Hasina survived the attack with a partial hearing loss, her party's women front chief and former president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman was killed in the blasts. The verdict comes ahead of the parliamentary elections in December. Zia's party had boycotted the 2014 elections