Bangladesh on highest security alert amid Majibur trail

Oct 27, 2009, 15:24 GMT

Dhaka - Bangladeshi security forces were placed on the highest alert Tuesday amid fears of violence during the final stage of the trial of former army officers convicted of the 1975 assassination of country's founding leader Sheikh Majibur Rahman.

The government order for security to be tightened at all key installations and diplomatic enclaves came a day after Attorney General Mahbubey Alam received an anonymous death threat, warning him not to pursue the politically-sensitive case.

Alam is representing the state in an appeal hearing on the guilty verdicts of some of the convicts.

Last week, a similar threat was directed at a ruling party lawmaker, who is also a relative of Mujib.

'The law enforcement agencies have been put on the highest alert to any possible deterioration in law and order during the hearing in the assassination case,' State Minister for Home Affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku told reporters.

'Evil forces,' he said, were trying to sabotage proceedings in the case, he said, without naming a particular group.

Mujib along with several family members were killed in a military putsch on August 15, 1975. A murder case was filed 21 years after his daughter Sheikh Hasina Wazed became prime minister in 1996.

A trial court sentenced 12 military officials to death for the killing, and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is now conducting a hearing on appeal petitions.