SYLHET (Bangladesh) - A COURT in north-east Bangladesh on Tuesday sentenced three Islamic militants to death and two others to life in prison for a 2004 grenade attack that wounded a British diplomat and killed three other people, a government lawyer said.

Judge Shamim Mohammad Afzal sentenced Mufti Hannan and two of his associates to death for the attack at a Muslim shrine in Sylhet city, 192km north-east of the capital of Dhaka.

Hannan's brother and another person were given life terms, Public Prosecutor Fakhruddin Ahmed said.

Lawyers for the defendants - who were all present in court on Tuesday - said they would appeal the verdict.

Hannan was leader of the banned radical group Harkatul Jihad Al-Islami.

The militant outfit wanted to establish strict Islamic rule in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation governed by secular laws. It also sought to avenge the killings of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan in the US-led campaign against terrorism.

Investigators said the attack targeted then-British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury.

A hand grenade was hurled at the Bangladeshi-born envoy as he left the shrine of Hazrat Shah Jalal after Friday prayers on May 21, 2004. A policeman and two bystanders were killed, and 50 others were wounded.

Hannan, a radical cleric who is believed to have trained with Islamic fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was arrested in October 2005.

Hannan is also accused of planning a deadly grenade attack on an opposition rally in Dhaka that killed 22 people and wounded 300 others on Aug 21, 2004.

Harkatul Jihad is also believed to be behind a spate of bombings at cultural events and movie theaters across Bangladesh in recent years. -- AP