B'desh: Islamists appeal to President for mercy

Dhaka, Jan 28: Five top Islamists sentenced to be hanged for a spate of bomb attacks which killed dozens of people in Bangladesh will appeal to President Iajuddin Ahmed for mercy, police said today.

They said mercy petitions, handed to prison authorities, by the five including Shayek Abdur Rahman and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai would be sent to the president shortly as the hangings were expected to be carried out by the middle of February.

They were sentenced for killing two judges in the southern town of Jhalakati in November 2005, police said.

Shayek and Bangla Bhai, head of outlawed groups Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, respectively, were also blamed for masterminding and participating in a series of bomb blasts in August 2005, in their pursuit of introducing sharia law in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy.

They were arrested in early 2006 and were sentenced, along with several deputies, to death by hanging by a lower court. In November, the Supreme Court upheld the sentences.

The militants now can only be saved by the president, legal officials said.

After months of lull following the arrests of the militant leaders, the Islamists began regrouping last month, taking advantage of political unrest that swept the country ahead of parliamentary elections, which were set for January 22 but cancelled under pressure of a major political alliance.

Over the last few weeks, police and elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) forces have seized huge quantities of explosives, including live bombs, and detained dozens of suspected Islamists.

Unidentified militants threw a bomb at a RAB patrol car in the capital Dhaka on Saturday night, in which one RAB soldier and six passers-by were wounded, police said.

They said security around the country of 140 million people had been further tightened in the wake of the attack, which surprised many as the country is currently under a state of emergency.

Under the emergency, all political and trade union activities have been banned and the media put under tight control.

The country is now being run by an interim government headed by former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed, which is charged to hold a free and fair election with participation of all major political parties.

REUTERS>