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A Dhaka court on Tuesday sentenced to death six members of Al-Qaeda-linked banned Islamist outfit Ansar al Islam for the killing of two LGBT rights activists in 2016.
The Dhaka Anti-Terrorism Tribunal found six of the eight accused, including sacked major of Bangladesh Army Syed Ziaul Haque, guilty of the murder of activists Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Tonoy, prosecutor Golam Sharuar Khan said.
The other convicts are Mozammel Hossain alias Simon, Arafat Rahman, Sheikh Abdullah, Md Asadullah, and Akram Hossain alias Abir. Each convict has also been fined Tk 50,000 by Judge Mojibur Rahman.
The court also acquitted Sabbirul Haque Chowdhury and Md Zunaid Ahmad alias Zunaid for want of evidence.
At the time the sentence was handed down, Mozammel Hossain alias Simon, Arafat Rahman, Sheikh Abdullah, and Md Asadullah were present in the courtroom. Ziaul and Akram are now on the run.
Extremist group Ansar al Islam was banned in 2017 and it claimed responsibility for the killing of the activists on social media.
Xulhaz and Tonoy were hacked to death inside a Dhaka house on April 25, 2016. According to the prosecutor, five of the convicts already face another death sentence for the murder of writer and blogger Avijit Roy and his publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan.
Avjit was hacked to death in February 2015 near Dhaka University’s Teacher-Student Centre while returning from Ekushey Book Fair.
Dipan was killed in a similar manner in his office eight months later.
More than 70 people, including bloggers, thinkers, members of religious minorities, and foreigners, were killed in a series of targeted attacks in Bangladesh between 2013 and 2016. The government blamed local militant groups for the killings.
