A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced eight people to death including five of a family, and awarded life term imprisonment to another, for killing three villagers in Mymensingh in 2006.
ABM Sajedur Rahman of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-3 also sentenced three others to different terms of imprisonment.
Omar Ali and his four sons Shafiqul Islam, Rafiqul Islam, Ashraf Ali and Ershad Ali received the death penalty along with Motahar Hossain Pradip, Abdur Rahim and Bulbul Ahmed.
Ziaul Haq was sentenced to life term imprisonment, Mohammad Razzaqul was sentenced to 10 years in prison while Mohammad Hanif and Rahima Begum got two years each.
Pradip, Rahim, Ashraf Ali, Ziaul Haq, Razzaqul and Hanif were present when the judge handed down the sentence while the rest were tried in absentia.
The punishment of the fugitives will be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender, the judge said.
The trial proceeding of another accused Anisur Rahman was earlier stayed following an order of the High Court (HC).
The court also acquitted Al Amin, Rokeya Khatun and Hosne Ara as the allegations brought against them could not be proved.
After the judgment, Shymal Sutradhar, complainant of the case, expressed his satisfaction and urged the government to arrest the fugitives immediately.
On January 22, 2006, Hari Das Sutradhar and Niranjan Sutradhar and their nephew Bimal Sutradhar were killed over a land dispute at Chorervita under Dhubaura upazila.
The attackers also injured five family members of the victims--Sreebas Sutradhar, Ramdas Sutradhar, Doyal Sutradhar, Arun Sutradhar and Sumita Rani Sutradhar when they intervened to stop the violence.
Special Public Prosecutor Mahbubur Rahman and Prakash Ranjan Biswas appeared for the state while Ruhul Amin defended the accused.