Police in Bangladesh on Saturday arrested the prime suspect in the murders of a secular blogger and publisher, the Dhaka Tribune reported. Khairul Islam, a leader of the outlawed Ansarullah Bangla Team’s intelligence wing, was detained by the police’s Detective Branch at the Kamlapur Rail Station in Dhaka, officials said.
Detective Branch Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman said Islam admitted to his role in the killings of blogger Niladri Chatterjee Niloy and Jagriti Prakashani publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan during interrogation. Islam collected information about Niloy and Dipan before passing it on to Sayed Ziaul Haque, the leader of the outfit, Rahman said. Haque then ordered the operational wing of the outfit to kill the two men, the official added. Officials said Islam had also identified four people involved in the murder of secular blogger Avijit Roy.
Bangladesh has been witness to a spate of attacks against religious minorities, bloggers, foreigners, LGBT activists and others for the past three years. On April 23, a university professor was murdered near his home in Rajshahi. A senior editor of the country’s first LGBT magazine Roopban was hacked to death on April 25. In November 2015, Dipan was hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka. The publisher had worked with Roy, who was also hacked to death near a book fair in the Bangladeshi capital on February 26.
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