Dhaka, Dec 19 (IANS): A court in Bangladesh Thursday awarded life sentence to nine people accused of murdering two university students in Sylhet.

Sylhet Speedy Trial Tribunal judge Dilip Kumar Debnath delivered the verdict two years after the murders.

Dipangkar Ghosh Anik and Khairul Kabir, both students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), were murdered while trying to save female classmates from being kidnapped in 2011.

The life sentences were awarded to Guljar Majhhi, Chhoeel Mia, Shahin Ahmad, Laal Mia, Saeem Mia, Jalal Mia, Rakib Ahmad, Abdullah and Selim Mia. All of them hail from Nalkat village of Sylhet Sadar upazila.

Rakib Ahmad and Guljar Mia are absconding.

The court also fined them 20,000 takas (nearly $260) each and if they fail to pay they will have to stay one additional year in jail.

On Dec 16, 2011, six students of SUST's chemical engineering and polymer science department went on a boat ride on the Chengerkhaal lake in Sylhet.

They were chased by five to six men in an engine boat.

Anik and Kabir were hit on the head and fell from the boat when the people chasing their boat attacked them. The two tried to resist the abduction of their classmates who were in the boat.

The trial began after the police investigation, submission of chargesheet and transfer of the case to Sylhet's Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal May 25.