DHAKA, March 30: Bangladesh authorities on Friday executed six militant leaders accused of killing two judges and masterminding a wave of deadly bombings. Extra police and members of the elite Rapid Action Battalion patrolled the main streets of Dhaka after the men’s hanging, carried out two weeks before schedule for security reasons.

The six included Shaikh Abdur Rahman, the leader of the outlawed Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and his deputy, Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai.

“They were hanged in four different jails and their bodies were handed over to their families,” inspector general of prisons Brigadier Zakir Hassan said. “They did not show any emotion during the hangings.”

The militants were sentenced to death last year for an attack that killed two judges in Nov 2005.

However, authorities say the group was also behind 400 almost simultaneous blasts that shook this country of 144 million people on Aug 17, 2005.

Twenty-eight people were killed and hundreds injured in the attacks, and an ensuing crackdown saw some 1,000 JMB members arrested.—AFP