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Bangladesh has sentenced two police officers to death for the murder of a former military major that cast a spotlight on extrajudicial killings by the nation’s security forces, Aljazeera reported.

The district court judge announced the verdict against Pradeep Kumar Das Liakat Ali for murdering Sinha Mohammad Rashed on July 31, 2020, near the southeastern tourist town of Cox’s Bazar.

Das and several other officers were accused of shooting dead the retired army major while he was filming a nature documentary.

“The judge said it was a premeditated murder,” prosecutor Tauhidul Ahsan told the AFP news agency. “One of them shot him dead and another kicked him with his boots as he lay dying.”

Monday’s hearing did not discuss the motive for the crime.

Details of the murder were leaked to the press and triggered outrage among the country’s military fraternity, who demanded the officers be punished.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the court to condemn Das and his co-conspirators during the sentencing.

Six more people were sentenced to life in prison for the killing, while seven others were acquitted.

Bangladesh’s rights record under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already drawn international condemnation.

Washington last month imposed sanctions on the country’s elite Rapid Action Battalion security force, along with several former and current top officers, over accusations of extrajudicial killings.

Bangladeshi human rights researcher Mubashar Hasan said the case against Das and the other defendants only went ahead because the victim was a member of the country’s powerful military.

“Pradeep could have pretty much got away and probably would’ve got [a] presidential or prime ministerial medal by killing ordinary citizens in the name of killing drug peddlers,” Hasan, who is based in Australia, told AFP news agency.

Das has been accused by rights groups of masterminding more than 170 murders in the country’s south.

Two persons died and three others were injured after being hit by a tipper at Satpatiyama in Badhaiyataal Rural Municipality -3 of Bardiya on Monday.

According to the Area Police Office, Mainapokhar, local Som Bahadur (45) died on the spot while Ram Tharu breathed his last during the course of treatment at the Nepalgunj Nursing Home.

Police said that Pramila Chaudhary (35), Chameliya Tharu (40) and Laxman Sunar (19) of  Birendra Municipality-11, Surkhet, who were injured in the incident, are undergoing treatment in Nepalgunj.

The tipper (Bhe 1 Ka 1495) hit them while they were sitting around the fire to keep themselves warm at around 8 pm yesterday.

The government has declared a public holiday on Wednesday on the occasion of Sonam Lhosar, the new year marked by the Tamang Community.

A Cabinet meeting held on Monday had decided to declare a public holiday on Wednesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs said.

The death toll from landslides and flooding set off by heavy rains in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state reached 24 on Monday as firefighters continued pulling bodies from the mud, Associated Press reported.

Brazil’s most populous state was blasted with rain over the weekend, and hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes. The death toll had stood at 19 late Sunday, according to a statement from the civil defense authority.

”(I’m looking for) my nephew, his wife and a 2-year-old child,” Cicero Pereira, 54, told The Associated Press beside a disaster site in the city of Franco da Rocha. “They said the bodies are still there under the mud, but until now they couldn’t recover them.”

Nelito Santos Bonfim, a 69-year-old resident, told AP he barely escaped with his life.

“When I started running, the debris fell all over me,” Bonfim said. “I got hurt, but found a hole and, thanks to God, I managed to escape. But my father is still there.”

A total 27 cities were affected, of which Franco da Rocha suffered the greatest loss of life. Gov. João Doria used a helicopter to survey damaged areas Sunday and announced the equivalent of $2.8 million in financial aid to affected cities.