Two convicted murderers of publisher Foisal Arefin Dipon, who are members of the banned militant organization Ansar al-Islam, have escaped from a Dhaka tribunal.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Deputy Commissioner (Media) Md Faruk Hossain confirmed this information to Bangla Tribune.
The escaped convicts are Abu Siddique Sohel alias Sajid alias Sihab and Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Sifat.
Md Faruk Hossain said: "Checkposts have been set up at all exit points of Dhaka city."
Dipon was brutally hacked to death at the Jagriti Prokashony office on the second floor of Aziz Super Market in Shahbagh on October 31, 2015.
A murder case was filed at Shahbagh police station two days later against unidentified assailants. Police pressed charges against the eight militants on November 15, 2018.
On October 13, 2019, the court indicted the eight in the case. Twenty-two out of 26 prosecution witnesses testified in court during the trial.
According to the case docket, the attackers killed Dipon by hitting him on the back of his neck with sharp weapons inside his office.
The murder of Dipon, son of former Dhaka University professor and writer Abul Quasem Fazlul Huq, in October 2015 occurred amid a series of attacks on writers, publishers and online activists in Bangladesh.
At the same time on the day of Dipon's murder, three bloggers and writers were attacked in the same manner at the office of the publishing house Shuddhashar in Lalmatia.
However, the trio — Shuddhashar owner Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury Tutul, who was also a close friend of Avijit Roy, blogger Ranadipam Basu and poet Tareq Rahim — managed to survive the attack.
Six militants — including the ones who escaped on Sunday, had confessed before the court following their arrests.