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| Three to die for UK envoy attack | Three to die for UK envoy attack |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A court in north-east Bangladesh has sentenced three men to death for a 2004 grenade attack that killed three people and wounded a British diplomat. | |
| Prosecutors said the men were all members of the banned Islamic militant group Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (Huji). | Prosecutors said the men were all members of the banned Islamic militant group Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (Huji). |
| Two others were given life terms by the court in the city of Sylhet. | Two others were given life terms by the court in the city of Sylhet. |
| British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury was visiting a shrine in the city when the blast occurred. As well as those killed more than 50 were hurt. | |
| Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami is one of several banned armed groups seeking to establish hardline Islamic rule in Bangladesh. | |
| 'Afghan veteran' | |
| One of those convicted of charges of murder and use of explosives was Mufti Abdul Hannan, who is alleged to be the Huji leader. | |
| His brother and another man were also sentenced to be hanged. | |
| "The judge has said the charges against five [have] been proved beyond doubt. He sentenced three militants, including Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, to be hanged," police inspector Abdul Ahad Chowdhury said, AFP news agency reports. | |
| Defence lawyers said they planned to appeal. | |
| Anwar Choudhury is a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin whose family come from the Sylhet area. | |
| The 21 May 2004 explosion occurred only weeks after he took up his posting as he made his first visit to his ancestral home. | |
| Mufti Hannan is believed to be a veteran of the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s. | |
| Police said the attack was "to avenge the deaths of Muslims in Iraq and across the world by America and Britain". | |
| Bangladesh experienced a series of bomb attacks in 2004 and 2005 which were blamed on Islamist militant groups as part of their campaign to force Sharia law in the mainly Muslim country. | |
| The violence eased after the heads of two powerful militant groups were arrested and executed. |