The Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal of Sylhet has started to take testimony from witnesses of the brutal murder of blogger and science writer Ananta Bijoy Das, who was hacked to death in broad daylight in Sylhet by a group of masked assailants in 2015.
The judge of the tribunal, Md Nurul Amin Biplob, on Tuesday recorded the testimony of Assistant Professor of Madan Mohan College Abul Kashem, who was the key witness of the police at the autopsy of the deceased.
According to court sources, police kept the professor as a witness of the autopsy they conducted on the blogger in 2015.
At the time of the recording of the testimony, two of the accused, Abul Khair Rashid Ahmed and Shafiur Rahman Farabi, were present in court, confirmed the lawyer for the plaintiff, Emad Ullah Shahidul Islam.
He said: “Testimonies of 15 witnesses among 29 people have been recorded. The next hearing will be on January 3, 2021.”
Secularist writer Ananta Bijoy Das, who was an activist of Sylhet Gonojagoron Moncho, was hacked to death by a group of assailants in broad daylight at Subidbazar Bankalapara in Sylhet city on May 12, 2015.
His elder brother Ratneshwar Das filed the murder case the same day. The case was later transferred to the CID.
Al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar al-Islam (previously Ansarullah Bangla Team) claimed credit for the murder.
Ananta was the editor of the science-based magazine Jukti.
He also received Mukto-Mona Rationalist Award in 2006. He was the author of several books, including Parthib, 2001 (co-authored with Saikat Chowdhury), Darwin: Ekhush Shatake Prasongikota Ebong Bhabna, Soviet Union-E Bigyan O Biplob: Lisenko Odday, etc. Evolution was one of the central themes of many of his articles.
