Bangladesh confirms death sentence for Islamist leader
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - In this June 16, 2014 file photo, Mufti Abdul Hannan, center, leader of banned radical group Harkatul Jihad al Islami, stands at a court in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Sunday dismissed an appeal seeking the scrapping of a death sentence for the former head of a banned militant group over a 2004 grenade attack on Britain's then-envoy to Dhaka. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad, File) (The Associated Press)
Bangladesh's Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal seeking the scrapping of a death sentence for the former head of a banned militant group over a 2004 grenade attack on Britain's then-envoy to Dhaka.
Sunday's dismissal by a three-member panel of judges means there is no more barrier to executing Mufti Hannan and two of his accomplices for the attack on a 700-year-old shrine during a visit. Hannan was the top leader of Harkatul Jihad.
Then-British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury was unharmed in the attack, but three police officers were killed and 70 people were wounded.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The group, formed in 1992 by Bangladeshis returning from fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan, has been blamed for many other attacks in the Muslim-majority nation.