Bangladesh executes extremist

DHAKA: Bangladesh has executed an hardline Islamist for a 2005 bomb attack in which eight people died, officials said on Friday.

Asaduzzaman Ponir, 37, was hanged at the Kashimpur High Security Prison at 11:00 pm (1700 GMT) Thursday, the prison’s chief Mohammed Gias Uddin told AFP.

Ponir was found guilty in 2008 of organising the bombing of Udichi Shilphi Goshti, a secular cultural group in the northeastern district of Netrokona. An alleged suicide bomber was among those who died.

Ponir was a member of Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), authorities say, a radical group which staged a series of attacks in 2005 on courts, administrative offices, Sufi Muslim shrines and cultural groups.