20 Bangladeshi students get death sentence for murder

DHAKA: Twenty Bangladeshi students were sentenced to death for the murder of a young man who criticised the Sheikh Hasina government in a Facebook post. The battered body of Abrar Fahad, 21, was found in his university dormitory hours after he wrote a Facebook post slamming Sheikh Hasina for signing a water-sharing deal with India.
He was beaten with a cricket bat and other blunt objects for six hours by 25 fellow students who were members of the ruling Awami League’s student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL). “I am happy with the verdict,” Fahad’s father Barkat Ullah told reporters outside court after the verdict. “I hope the punishments will be served soon.”
Prosecutor Abdullah Abu said the remaining five perpetrators were sentenced to life imprisonment. All those handed death sentences were between 20 and 22 years old and attended the elite Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology alongside Fahad.
Fahad had put up a post on Facebook that went viral hours before his death. In it, he criticised the government for signing an accord that allowed India to take water from a river that lies on the boundary the two countries share. Fahad had been seen walking into a dormitory with some BCL activists. Six hours later, his body was carried out by the students and laid on the ground.