Death for Bangladesh blogger killers

Image source, AFP/Getty

Image caption, Hundreds of people have rallied against the killing of secular bloggers and activists

Two students have been sentenced to death in Bangladesh for the killing of an atheist blogger there in 2013.

Six others were convicted of involvement in the murder of Ahmed Rajib Haider, who was hacked to death as he was returning home from a rally in the capital, Dhaka.

A five-year sentence was given to the head of Ansarullah Bangla, the group suspected of carrying out the attack.

Five more secular bloggers and writers were killed in Bangladesh in 2015.

The court said that one of the students sentenced to death, Faisal bin Nayeem, attacked Haider with a meat cleaver in front of the victim's house.

The other was tried and sentenced in absentia.

Haider was among a group of bloggers who had called for the execution of Islamist leaders for crimes committed in the 1971 war.

The blogger's father, Mohammad Nazim Uddin, said he was unhappy that only two men were given the death sentence.

"I'm not happy with the verdict. I reject this verdict. Five of them confessed their involvement in the killing. But only two were given death sentence. How is it possible?", he said.

There have been several clashes in recent years between Islamists and supporters of the secular Awami League.