Sheikh Hasina was on Thursday sworn in as the prime minister of Bangladesh for the fifth term, days after her Awami League won an overwhelming majority in the general elections boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies.
Nine years after seven RDX bombs kept in Mumbai suburban trains exploded killing 188 people, a Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court is likely to pronounce its verdict on Friday.
Seven years after the Mumbai serial train blasts in which nearly 200 people were killed and over 700 injured, the trial in the case is still going on with the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court recording the statements of the accused. "The court is now recording the statement of the accused who wanted to depose as a defence witness in the case," said advocate Sherif Sheikh, appearing for some of the accused in the case
A Special MCOCA court has convicted 12 of the 13 accused in the July 11, 2006 Mumbai suburban train bombings in which 188 people were killed.
All 12 convicts found guilty in the case relating to the July 11, 2006 serial train blasts, which claimed 188 lives in local trains in Mumbai, have pleaded leniency in the court on the point of sentence citing humanitarian grounds.
The case took a twist when the defence lawyer sought to call Indian Mujahideen co-founder Sadiq Sheikh as a defence witness after he told the police in 2008 that IM members were responsible for all the blasts that had occurred in India since 2005 including the July 11, 2006 train blasts.
Protesting against enforced disappearances in Balochistan, Abdul Qadeer Baloch, 72, has led a small group that has covered more than 2,000 kilometres on foot, breaking the 84-year-old record set by Mahatma Gandhi during his Dandi march. Hamid Mir reports from Islamabad.