A Dhaka court yesterday granted the police seven days to interrogate the acting chief of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team and his two cohorts, arrested on Thursday.
DB Inspector Fazlur Rahman produced them before the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Shahriar Mahmud Adnan in the afternoon with a 10-day remand plea.
The trio are acting Ansarullah chief Abul Bashar – the younger brother of detained chief Jasim Uddin Rahmani, and the outfit’s media wing members Julhas Biswas and Jafran Hossain. They were picked up from the capital’s Fakirerpool bus stand area by a Rapid Action Battalion team around 5am on Thursday. Later they were handed over to the Detective Branch of police, who are investigating the blogger murder cases.
In the court, Julhas and Jafran denied having any involvement in the murder case and claimed that the arrests had been made to harass them.
Bangladesh-born US scientist Avijit Roy, also founder of secular blogging platform Mukto-Mona, was hacked to death in TSC area on February 26. His wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya survived the attack, but was seriously injured. Later Ansarullah members claimed responsibilities for the murder.
Meanwhile, officials of police’s elite force RAB have said that Sadek Ali Mithu, arrested on August 18, was not directly involved in murders of Avijit and another Mukto-Mona writer Ananta Bijoy Das.
Earlier, RAB claimed that he was one of the Ansarullah members who had taken part in the killings.
Ananta was also hacked to death by masked assailants on May 12 near his house in Sylhet town. According to RAB, the same Ansarullah team killed Avijit and Ananta.
Deputy Director of RAB 3 Maj Kamran Kabir Uddin told the Dhaka Tribune: “Sadek Ali did not actively participate in the murder but knew about the plan.”
The killers sometimes discussed about the murders and future plans at Sadek’s house. “As he is an active member of the outfit, he remained silent about the attack. And by hiding the information, he became their associate and another accused in the case,” the official added.
A RAB source said that they were suspecting that Ramzan alias Siam and Nayeem, the alleged killers of Avijit and Ananta, had not fled the country. But the elite force is yet to trace them.