Six members of an Islamist militant group were sentenced to death on Tuesday by a court in Bangladesh for the brutal killing of two gay rights activists five years ago.
Xulhaz Mannan, 35, the editor of Bangladesh’s first magazine for gay people, and actor Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, 25, were hacked to death in Mannan’s apartment in the capital Dhaka in April 2016.
The most serious attack came in July of 2016, when gunmen stormed a cafe in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners.
The brutal murders were part of a series of attack claimed by Ansar Al Islam, the regional arm of al Qaeda.
Of the eight defendants in the case, six were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death,
The Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal also convicted the six of belonging to a terrorist organization, the al Qaeda-inspired domestic militant organization Ansar Ullah Bangla Team, Khan said, a group that police believe is responsible for the murders of more than a dozen activists and bloggers
