DHAKA, Feb 11: Three members of an outlawed Islamist organisation were sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday for their involvement in a bomb attack in Bangladesh that killed two judges on Nov 14.

The convicts included two senior members of the Jamiatul Mujahideen, Ataur Rahman Sunny and Abdul Awal, who were found guilty of abetting the third convict, Iftekhar Hasan al Mamun, a worker in the organisation, in carrying out the fatal bomb attack on district judges Sohel Ahmed and Jagannath Parey.

The trial court judge said he had shown leniency by not pronouncing the death sentence as the accused had admitted to their guilt without contesting the charges.

Sunny and Awal, younger brother and son-in-law respectively of Jamiatul Mujahideen chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman, on Wednesday made confessional statements before a magistrate’s court in Dhaka.

The three pleaded guilty to the charge of being involved in the bomb attack that killed the two judges.

Tight security was enforced around the court compound. Even lawyers had to go through security checks before entering the courthouse.

Mr Sunny, one of the convicts, said after the verdict that the attack on the judges was inevitable as the ‘law of Allah’ had not been established despite ‘warnings’ in the shape of countrywide blasts on Aug 17. On that day there were 300 bomb explosions across Bangladesh.