DHAKA, Bangladesh — Six men said to belong to an Islamist militant group were convicted and sentenced to death on Tuesday over the 2016 killings of a prominent Bangladeshi gay rights activist and his friend. That same month, an atheist blogger was shot and killed, and a university professor was hacked to death. Mr. Mannan’s killing was the first attack on a gay rights activist. “They decided to slay the victims for their involvement in gay rights’ activism,” a special antiterrorism tribunal in Dhaka said on Tuesday in announcing the convictions and sentences. Four of the men are in custody, while two remain at large, including Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque, a former major fired by the Bangladeshi Army, which accused him in 2012 of involvement in an attempted coup.

Source: International New York Times August 31, 2021 14:48 UTC