26 given death sentence in Bangladesh's sensational murder case

A court in Bangladesh's central Narayanganj district about 20 kilometres from the capital Dhaka awarded on Monday death sentence to 26 accused in a sensational murder case of seven people.

Narayanganj's District and Sessions Judge Syed Enayet Hossain ordered the death penalty for 26 and jailed nine others for seven to 17 years' of imprisonment for the 2014 sensational murder case.

The court found all the accused guilty for the murders.

Narayanganj City Corporation's ex-Councillor Nur Hossain, believed to be the mastermind of the murder of seven persons, and three former senior officers of Bangladesh's elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) are among the 26 awarded the death penalty.

Twenty-three of the 26 accused including prime suspect Nur Hossain are now behind the bars.

The abduction and gruesome killings, which apparently shocked whole Bangladesh, sparked massive waves of protests in the country.

Nazrul Islam, a fellow councilor of Hossain, with three associates and his driver went missing on April 27 of 2014. Nazrul's lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarker who was following his car of Nazrul Islam, also went missing on the same day with his driver from the same place.

About a week later bodies of all the seven persons were seen floating on the Shitalakshya River on which the Narayanganj stands on.

Nazrul's father-in-law Shahidul Islam alleged that RAB personnel abducted and killed Nazrul and his associates, who had a longstanding political and business rivalry with Nur Hossain, who fled to India after the murders took place.

Nur Hossain was arrested in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal in June, 2015, and subsequently brought back home. Endit