Another convict in the case, a 17-year-old boy who has been on bail, was also sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and fined Tk 3,000 or six months more in prison in failure to pay.

The 16-year-old boy was sent to Jamalpur District Prison while the court issued an arrest warrant against the other teenager who has been absconding.

Special Tribunal Judge Rokanuzzaman of the First Sub-Judge's Court of the district handed down the verdict on June 18 in a case filed on June 30 last year, said our correspondent in Netrakona yesterday.

In the complaint, the police said they found a cartridge in the hand of the 17-year-old boy and a revolver in the hand of the 16-year-old boy. The younger boy could give any reasonable answer for keeping the firearm.

Legal experts and children's rights activists expressed surprise over the verdicts. The Children's Act 1974 and more than one Supreme Court (SC) instructions categorically said that children should be tried only in juvenile courts, they said.

In his reaction, SC Advocate Shahdeen Malik said whatever the allegations are, only the juvenile courts have the jurisdiction to try children.

"It is not understandable how other courts can hand down such verdicts sentencing the two boys to long-term imprisonment although there is clear legal interpretation about it," he said.

Advocate UM Habibun Nesa of Save the Children UK said such position of the courts is not only a barricade against developing human resources, but will cause social disaster.