DHAKA, Jan 27 Bangladesh executed after Wednesday midnight the five killers of the nation's founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose assassination in a 1975 coup reverberates to this day.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the men's final attempt to challenge their sentences for killing Mujib. The president rejected last-minute appeals for clemency from two of the men.

“All five of the killers have now been executed,” deputy law minister Kamrul Islam told reporters at the prison at around 1am, adding that the convicts had all been hanged.

Nearly a thousand people gathered outside the prison in Old Dhaka. Dozens of ruling Awami League supporters were present, holding banners with slogans saying “Justice at last” and “Do not bury them in Bangladeshi soil”.

Coffins for the five had been taken into the jail on Wednesday evening. The prison was surrounded by heavily armed Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) troops and police.

The families of the convicts had been called during the day by the prison authorities. Mahsuza Pasha, sister of one of the convicts - Bazlul Huda - told AFP she had said goodbye to her brother, a former army officer.

“My brother is a martyr,” she said. “We haven't been given justice. I was allowed to see my brother one last time today.”

Mujib was gunned down at his home, along with his wife and three sons, in a military coup on August 15, 1975. His daughter, the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was abroad at the time.

A total of 20 people, including domestic staff, were killed when the group of officers stormed his house, but the murder charges that were brought only related to Mujib's death.—AFP