BLOGGERS AVIJIT, ANANTA MURDERS

�Mastermind� among 3 �ABT militants� held

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has detained three suspected militants of banned Islamist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) from the capital’s Dhanmondi and Nilkhet areas in connection with the murders of bloggers Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das. The detainees were identified as Touhidul Islam, the mastermind of the murders and a financier of the banned ABT, and its active members Sadek Ali and Aminul Mollik, RAB said.
RAB spokesperson Mufti Mahmud, at a press briefing at its Uttara headquarters, said the trio were involved in killing writer and blogger Avijit Roy, son of noted physicist Ajoy Roy and founder of Mukto-Mona blog, and Ananta Bijoy Das, another blogger. Das had been living in a state of dread since the brutal murder of Bangladesh-born US-based writer and blogger Avijit Roy.
Acting on a tip, the elite force personnel conducted separate drives in these areas, and arrested the trio on Monday night, he said.
RAB personnel arrested Sadek Ali from Nilkhet area around 10pm that night. Later, based on information obtained from Sadek, RAB members detained Touhidul Islam and Aminul Mollik in front of a restaurant in Dhanmondi area around midnight. Touhidul Islam is a Bangladesh-born UK citizen, RAB sources disclosed. During primary interrogation, the trio confessed their involvement in the killings of Roy and Das.
Sadik Ali and his younger brother, Abul Bashar, received instructions from Jasimuddin Rahmani, the chief of the ABT. Touhidul Islam planned the operation before attacking the victim. Sadik Ali and four others joined the operation.
Sadik Ali, along with Jafran, Julhas, Nayeem and Ramzan, took part in the killing of Avijit Roy on February 26. They gathered at Muhsin Hall field three hours prior to Roy’s murder. After conducting a meeting for one-and-a-half hours, Ramzan and Nayeem followed Roy to the Ekushey Book Fair, and swooped down on him and his wife, Rafida Afrin Banya, on the Dhaka University campus, after the couple came out of the Ekushey Boi Mela. The incident occurred around 8:45pm on the footpath along Suhrawardy Uddyan near TSC. They stabbed and killed Avijit Roy; his wife was seriously injured in the attack.
Blogger Ananta Bijoy Das, who had been living in a state of dread since the brutal murder of Roy, was killed in Sylhet on May 12.
Frustrated with the lack of progress in the Avijit Roy murder case, the 32-year-old Das had posted a status on Facebook on March 15. In his post, he had written, “If the killers are not tried, it is understood that they will hone another machete for another strike!”
His trepidation turned out to be all too real as Das, known for advocating science and secularism, was viciously hacked to death by a group of masked men in Sylhet city, in a continuation of the attacks on free thinkers.
Das, an organiser of the local Gonojagoron Mancha—which champions the call for meting out the maximum possible punishment to war criminals—was on his way to work when the attackers stabbed him around 8:45am.
He died on the spot. Das was also a writer on the ‘Mukto-Mona’ blog.

BLOGGERS AVIJIT, ANANTA MURDERS

�Mastermind� among 3 �ABT militants� held

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has detained three suspected militants of banned Islamist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) from the capitals Dhanmondi and Nilkhet areas in connection with the murders of bloggers Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das. The detainees were identified as Touhidul Islam, the mastermind of the murders and a financier of the banned ABT, and its active members Sadek Ali and Aminul Mollik, RAB said. RAB spokesperson Mufti Mahmud, at a press briefing at its Uttara headquarters, said the trio were involved in killing writer and blogger Avijit Roy, son of noted physicist Ajoy Roy and founder of Mukto-Mona blog, and Ananta Bijoy Das, another blogger. Das had been living in a state of dread since the brutal murder of Bangladesh-born US-based writer and blogger Avijit Roy. Acting on a tip, the elite force personnel conducted separate drives in these areas, and arrested the trio on Monday night, he said. RAB personnel arrested Sadek Ali from Nilkhet area around 10pm that night. Later, based on information obtained from Sadek, RAB members detained Touhidul Islam and Aminul Mollik in front of a restaurant in Dhanmondi area around midnight. Touhidul Islam is a Bangladesh-born UK citizen, RAB sources disclosed. During primary interrogation, the trio confessed their involvement in the killings of Roy and Das. Sadik Ali and his younger brother, Abul Bashar, received instructions from Jasimuddin Rahmani, the chief of the ABT. Touhidul Islam planned the operation before attacking the victim. Sadik Ali and four others joined the operation. Sadik Ali, along with Jafran, Julhas, Nayeem and Ramzan, took part in the killing of Avijit Roy on February 26. They gathered at Muhsin Hall field three hours prior to Roys murder. After conducting a meeting for one-and-a-half hours, Ramzan and Nayeem followed Roy to the Ekushey Book Fair, and swooped down on him and his wife, Rafida Afrin Banya, on the Dhaka University campus, after the couple came out of the Ekushey Boi Mela. The incident occurred around 8:45pm on the footpath along Suhrawardy Uddyan near TSC. They stabbed and killed Avijit Roy; his wife was seriously injured in the attack. Blogger Ananta Bijoy Das, who had been living in a state of dread since the brutal murder of Roy, was killed in Sylhet on May 12. Frustrated with the lack of progress in the Avijit Roy murder case, the 32-year-old Das had posted a status on Facebook on March 15. In his post, he had written, If the killers are not tried, it is understood that they will hone another machete for another strike! His trepidation turned out to be all too real as Das, known for advocating science and secularism, was viciously hacked to death by a group of masked men in Sylhet city, in a continuation of the attacks on free thinkers. Das, an organiser of the local Gonojagoron Manchawhich champions the call for meting out the maximum possible punishment to war criminalswas on his way to work when the attackers stabbed him around 8:45am. He died on the spot. Das was also a writer on the Mukto-Mona blog.