Dhaka High Court on February 17 upheld the death sentences of 10 cadres of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) for attempting to kill the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2000, reports The Daily Star. The verdict said if perpetrators were successful in implementing their plan to blast two powerful bombs, weighing 76kg and 40kg respectively, in Gopalganj's Kotalipara in July 2000, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was supposed to address a rally there, the incident would be similar to the August 15 massacre. The convicts are: Wasim Akter alias Tarek, Rashed alias Abul Kalam, Yusuf Alias Moshab Morol, Sheikh Farid alias Maulana Shawkat Osman, Hafez Zahangir Alam Badar, Maulana Abu Bakar alias Hafez Selim Howlader, Hafez Maulana Yahia, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Mufti Abdul Hye and Maulana Abdur Rauf alias Abdur Razzaque. All the 10 extremists were earlier convicted by the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-2 on August 20, 2017.