Rangamati: A Rangamati court on Monday sentenced five members of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned militant outfit, to 10 years of imprisonment in a case filed over three bomb blasts on 17 August 2005 in Rangamati.

Rangamati district joint and sessions’ judge Azizul Haque’s court announced the verdict at about 11:30am.

Police arrested six suspects for their connection in bombing while a series bomb attack was carried out across the country.

The convict JMB men are Obaidur Rahman Khayer of Barkal upazila in Rangamati, Ariful Islam from Dinajpur, Aiyub Ali of Sitakunda, Nilphamari’s Mohammad Abdul Hafiz Khalil, and Mohammad Jabed Iqbal of Cox’s Bazar.

However, the court acquitted Mohammad Ruhul Amin, a resident of Barkal, from the case.

Concluding a long hearing at the Rangamati joint and sessions’ Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque declared the verdict.

Court inspector Moinul Islam said a case under explosives act was filed in this connection.

The twin blasts were part of synchronised bombings carried out on 17 August 2005 across all Bangladesh cities and almost all districts that left two people dead.

Those blasts and subsequent bombings later that year, that killed 28 people, shook the mainly moderate Muslim nation of 160 million people whose government had earlier denied the presence of any militant groups.

Hundreds of suspected militants were later arrested and JMB’s top leaders executed in 2007.

In recent months, police have blamed a regrouped JMB for an upsurge in deadly violence, including the murder of two foreigners last year and deadly attacks on minority Shiite and Sufi Muslims and Christians.

The government has rejected the Islamic State’s claims of responsibility for some of those attacks, saying IS has no presence in Bangladesh.

Sunni-majority Bangladesh has been plagued by unrest in the last three years, and experts say a long-running political crisis has radicalised opponents of the government.

Since November at least five JMB commanders have been killed in shootouts with security forces, police say.