Two members of a banned Islamic group were convicted on Wednesday of attacking Bangladeshi security forces and sentenced to 50 years in jail each, a prosecutor said.
The men, members of Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a radical group that aims to establish Islamic law in the country, set off bombs in 2005 as the troops raided a house in northern Bangladesh in pursuit of the group’s leader.
No one was wounded in their assault, but Judge Mohammad Rezaul Islam said he gave them stiff sentences because they had intended to cause casualties.
The officials also recovered a huge cache of explosives from the house, prosecutor Rafiqul Islam said.
The judge read the verdict against Salauddin and Asaduzzsaman Panir in a packed Dhaka courtroom on Wednesday. Salauddin uses one name like many Bangladeshis.
The banned group was responsible for a nationwide terror campaign on August 17, 2005 when a series of bombings killed at least 26 people and wounded dozens more.
Bangladesh has been cracking down on the members of the group, and the government says it has broken down the network but there are operatives who are trying to regroup.
Six high—ranking members of the group, including leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his deputy Siddiqul Islam, were hanged in 2007 for the killing of two judges in a separate 2005 bomb attack in the southern town of Jhalakathi. During their trial, the defendants said they targeted the courts because they denounced Bangladesh’s secular legal system.
