Nazim killed in Ansarullah style

Examining the appearance of the assailants and their attacking style, the law enforcers primarily suspect that Jagannath University master's student Nazimuddin Samad might have been killed in a planned manner by the members of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team. Quoting eyewitnesses, police said that five youths aged 25-30 and wearing T-shirts and trousers attacked Nazim with machetes in Sutrapur area around 8:30pm on Wednesday. Later, they shot him in the head chanting “Allahu Akbar” and fled the scene. Investigators think that pro-Awami League Nazim was killed by trained and professional killers. The assailants took one to two minutes to conduct the operation. Several other secular activists and writers including Avijit Roy had been killed since last year reportedly by Ansarullah members in the same style. All the victims including Nazim were vocal against radical Islam, and social and state-sponsored injustice and misdeeds. They also supported the movement demanding capital punishment of the 1971 war criminals. Police said this is the first time the militants also used firearms. They later recovered a bullet shell from the spot. Deputy Commissioner of DMP’s Lalbagh division Syed Nurul Islam said that they were yet to be confirmed about the motive of the attack. “But we are investigating the case considering all possible aspects. No militant organisation has yet claimed responsibility for the murder.” No case was filed as of last night. The body of the victim, kept at Sir Salimullah Medical College, was handed over to his family members. Meanwhile, Jagannath University students blocked the road in front of the institution in Old Dhaka around 11am for several hours demanding quick arrest of the killers. They announced a rally at the university today and also threatened to observe strike on Sunday if the perpetrators were not arrested by the time. Hailing from Bianibazar of Sylhet, Nazim was an evening masters student of Jagannath University’s law department. He was the information and research secretary of Sylhet district unit Bangabandhu Jatiya Jubo Parishad. He was also an activist of Gonojagoron Moncho’s Sylhet wing. Nazim used to campaign for secularism on Facebook and was critical of radical Islamists. A day before the murder, he expressed concerns over the country’s law and order in a Facebook post. So far the police have taken two friends of the victim, all staying at a mess in Gendaria area, into custody for questioning. They quizzed Sohel Ahmed, who together with the victim went out for a walk during the attack. Name of the other detainee could not be known. Sohel said that two youths first intercepted them at Ekrampur intersection of Sutrapur and started to hit Nazim with machetes. He then stepped aside and tried to convince the attackers saying that they might have been mistaken. Failing to stop them, he went to the other side of the road and saw three more people joining them. He started running for safety hearing gunshots, police sources said. He saw a police patrol team nearby and requested them to save Nazim. “The on-duty officials asked him to go to the police station saying that they will visit the spot. They did not agree to go to the crime scene with Sohel. “He ran for his life and got on a random bus,” a police officer involved in the investigation said seeking anonymity. Earlier, secular writer and Gonojagoron Moncho activist Ahmed Rajeeb Haider, US citizen Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya, online activist Oyasiqur Rahman Babu and secular blogger Ananta Bijoy Das were attacked and killed with machetes on the streets of Dhaka and Sylhet. Blogger Niladri Chatterjee was attacked at his Goran residence while publishers Faisal Arefin Dipan, Ahmedur Rashid Tutul and his two friends were attacked at their offices in the city. Monirul Islam, DMP’s additional commissioner and head of Counter Terrorism and transnational Crime Unit, said that they were conducting a shadow investigation in the incident. The Dhaka Tribune reporter visited the murder spot yesterday and talked to a worker of Suborna Tailors named Shyamol Ghosh. Nazim was killed in front of the shop, he said. “We were working inside the shop at that time. Suddenly we saw a man fell on the street while some others hitting him with sharp weapons. We closed the shop hearing gunshots,” Shyamol said. Owner of the Gendaria house where Nazim used to live with two of his friends said that the trio had rented a flat on the sixth floor of the building two months ago. Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal did not want to blame religious extremists for the murder. “I cannot say now why he was murdered. But we need to see whether he used to write objectionable things on blogs,” he told BBC Bangla yesterday. Asked if murder is justified for such writings, the minister said with grudges: “I did not want to say that. If you see the blogs of the previous victims … attacking people’s religions and beliefs … it is not acceptable at any part of the world.” He also claimed that the law enforcers had solved all the previous murders; “the masterminds have been arrested or identified,” the minister said. On the other hand, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told the BBC Bangla that through the murder, “it is again proved that the extremists are active in the country, and they want to eliminate the secularists.”