Monday, May 29 2006 12:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jhalakathi(Bangladesh): A court today (May 29, 2006) sentenced seven Islamic militants to death for their role in the slayings of two judges in a bomb attack last year in southern Bangladesh, court officials said.

Judge Reza Tarique Ahmed delivered the verdict in a crowded courtroom in southern Jhalakathi town, where the twojudges were killed on November 14.

The attack was blamed on the outlawed Islamic militant group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, which seeks to impose strict Islamic law and has been held responsible for bombings that killed 26 people and wounded dozens across the country last year.

The men sentenced today included two top leaders of the group, Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddikul Islam, who admitted their involvement in the attack and were present in court today along with four of their colleagues who were convicted.

The seventh defendant remains at large and was tried in absentia.

An additional man was acquitted of charges that he helped the militants rent a house in Jhalakathi town, public prosecutor Haider Hossain said.

"Allah is great and he will always protect us," said Rahman from the dock after the judge handed the sentence.

The judges were traveling on a bus in Jhalakathi on November 14 when Islamic militant Iftekhar Hasan Al Mamun threw bombs at the vehicle, killing them both.



Mamun told the court that he carried out the killings on Rahman's orders.