BANGLADESH. 21 TO DIE FOR MURDER OF RULING PARTY MEMBER

a Bangladeshi court sentenced 21 people to death for the 2004 killing of a member of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's ruling party.
The verdict in Natore district in northwest Bangladesh represents the second highest number of death sentences ever handed down in a single case.
A special tribunal in Dhaka heard that Sabbir Ahmed, who belonged to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) student wing, was stabbed to death at a tea stall in his village.
The killing was believed due to political rivalry between the BNP and opposition parties.
Only five of those convicted, however, were in custody, said Afsar Uddin, police additional deputy commissioner of prosecutions. The rest remained at large.