An anti-terrorist tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced seven members of a banned Islamist militant group to death on Wednesday. They were charged for their involvement in an attack on a Dhaka cafe in 2016 that killed 22.
The attack on the Holey Artisan cafe in Dhaka was carried out by a group of five men, who took diners hostage.
Eight people were on trial, accused of planning and supplying the attackers with weapons. One man was acquitted.
A special anti-terrorism tribunal delivered the verdict in a crowded courtroom in the capital Dhaka, with judge Mojibur Rahman saying the attackers wanted “to draw the attention of Islamic State” group.
They wanted to “undermine public safety, create anarchy and “establish a Jihad(ist)” state, he said, adding that the seven “will be executed by hanging until they are pronounced dead”.
The convicts — Jahangir Hossain alias Rajib Gandhi, Rakibul Hasan Regan, Aslam Hossain alias Rashedul Islam alias Rash, Abdus Sabur Khan alias Soheil Mahfuz, Hadisur Rahman Sagar, Shariful Islam Khaled alias Khalid and Mamunur Rashid Ripon — were in the court to hear their death penalty, the report said.
The judge in his verdict identified Bangladeshi Canadian Tamim Chowdhury as the mastermind of the attack, who later was killed during a nationwide anti-militancy security clampdown.
The verdict simultaneously observed that Chowdhury tried to draw Islamic State (IS) support to militant attacks in Bangladesh.
The IS had immediately claimed responsibility for the Holey Artisan attack and several other subsequent militant assaults in the country.
But Bangladesh repeatedly declined the presence of any foreign terrorist group in the country attributing the incidents to homegrown terrorists.
Security analysts and officials, however, said several Bangladeshi homegrown militant groups were in touch with or influenced by international terrorist outfits.
The trial in the case started after the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit submitted a chargesheet on July 23, 2018, after two years of investigation.