Death sentence for Dhaka students

A special court in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, has sentenced three student activists to death and five others to life imprisonment in a case involving the killing of a female student at the country's sole engineering university.

Sabekun Nahar Sonny, an engineering student at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, was killed in cross-fire a year ago during an armed clash between two factions of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The case had sparked widespread protests at the university.

A BBC Correspondent says it is the first time in Bangladesh that a case involving a campus killing has been disposed off with urgency.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service