The proposal was approved in principle at a cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, the country's Law Minister Anisul Huq told journalists.

He said the proposed law stipulates that "the maximum punishment is death penalty for the sex offenders."

After the cabinet's approval of the proposal to enact the punishment, he said Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid will soon promulgate an ordinance increasing the punishment of rapists from the existing life term to death.

Huq said they placed the proposal before the cabinet to make quick amendments to the laws dealing with sexual assault.

In the wake of unprecedented countrywide anger over a series of rapes and sexual assaults recently, he said the government decided to adopt capital punishment for the crime by changing the law.