14 sentenced to death over Bangladesh's biggest arms haul

Fourteen including two former Bangladeshi ministers and an Indian separatist leader were awarded death penalty by a court in the southeastern port city of Chittagong on Thursday for arms smuggling. Judge SM Mojibur Rahman delivered the verdict over the country' s largest-ever arms seizure about a decade ago. Ten truckloads of sophisticated firearms and ammunition were seized at the Chittagong Urea Fertilizer jetty, while they were being offloaded from trawlers in the early hours of April 2, 2004. Around 1,500 boxes containing sub-machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, sub-machine carbines, pistols, rocket shells and launchers, hand grenades and bullets were seized. The seizure of the huge cache of arms sparked huge furor in Bangladesh and neighboring India after it was found that the weapons were bound for rebel groups in its restive northeastern region. Two top politicians sentenced to death are former State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar, and Bangladesh Jamaat-e- Islami party chief and former Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami. Babar and Nizami, who are behind the bars, were members of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's cabinet in 2001-2006. The court also awarded death penalty to fugitive Paresh Barua, military commander of Indian separatist group United Liberation Front of Asom, which was allegedly going to receive the arms. Attorney General Mahbub-e-Alam has expressed satisfaction with the verdict against the accused. But chief defense counsel Kamrul Islam said the ruling was politically motivated following flawed trials. "We'll appeal to the apex court against the verdict," he said.