A Dhaka court yesterday placed two madrasa students, who confessed to the killing of blogger and online activist Oyasiqur Rahman alias Babu, on a three-day fresh remand in the case.
Metropolitan Magistrate Ataul Haque passed the order after DB Inspector Moshiur Rahman, also investigation officer of the case, produced the accused – Zikrullah and Ariful Islam – before the court seeking five-day remand.
Zikrullah is a student of Hathazari madrasa in Chittagong run by Hefazat-e-Islam. Arif was a former student of the same institution and now studying in Darul Ulum Madrasa in the capital’s Mirpur.
They were placed on an eight-day remand on March 31, a day after the murder.
Oyasiqur, 27, was hacked to death by three cleaver-wielding youths, including the two arrestees, at Begunbari of Tejgaon on his way to office.
Meanwhile, detectives say the duo gave information about eight-ten people involved in the murders of Oyasiqur and Mukto-Mona blog founder Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death allegedly by the members of radical Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team on February 26.
“We are now verifying the information and searching for the suspects,” DB chief Monirul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune adding that the names could be fake.
So far, the law enforcers have arrested Shafiur Rahman Farabi, leader of banned Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, for instigating the attack on Avijit and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya. The couple, both US citizens, came to Bangladesh to attend the Amar Ekushey Book Fair two weeks before being attacked.
The prime suspect in Avijit murder, Ansarullah leader Redwanul Azad Rana, already fled the country, detectives said earlier.
Moreover, there is no update of the lab test reports on evidence expected from the FBI, who are assisting the DB police in Avijit murder case.
No clue from Shahbagh suspects
The detectives did not get any clue from the two teenagers about their presence with machetes at a procession by Gonojagoron Moncho at Shahbagh on Wednesday.
Shibli Noman, assistant commissioner of police’s Ramna division, said after the detention the duo had been interrogated at the DB headquarters until yesterday and later produced before court.