Fourteen Islamist militants were handed down death sentences by a Dhaka court on Tuesday for trying to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina more than two decades ago.

"The verdict will be executed by a firing squad to set an example," Judge Abu Zafar Mohammed Kamruzzaman was reported as saying in The Times of India.

The special court in Dhaka read the verdict in the presence of nine defendants, five others remain fugitives. All 14 were found guilty of sedition and criminal conspiracy, prosecutor Abu Abdullah Bhuilyan told AFP news agency.

"They are Islamist extremists belonging to the Harkat ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI)," he said, referring to a banned militant organization blamed for a series of deadly bombings and attacks in Bangladesh.

Why did assassins target Hasina?

The 2000 bomb plot was one of several attempts on Hasina's life in a wave of attacks by Islamic extremists sparked by her secular stance. The HuJI has advocated establishing strict Islamic law in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. 

The militants planted two bombs at a college where Hasina was due to speak at a rally. The devices were discovered and defused.

Since then, a crackdown on homegrown Islamist groups in Bangladesh has seen more than 100 extremists killed by police and more than 1,000 suspected militants detained.

In later 2018, Hasina's Awami League won Bangladesh's general election, making her prime minister of the South Asian country for the fourth time. 

jsi/wmr (AP,AFP)