A Sylhet court has granted seven-day remand to photojournalist Idris Ali, who was arrested by CID in connection with author and blogger Ananta Bijoy Das's murder.
Idris Ali, 30, son of Ilias Ali of Fatehgarh village, is a photojournalist of the local daily Shobuj Sylhet. He is also a freelance photojournalist of Sangbad.
Metropolitan Magistrate Farzana Yasmin granted the remand after Investigation Officer Arman Ali, also inspector of CID, produced Idris Ali before the court on Monday afternoon.
Airport police station OC Gousul Hossain said: "Members of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested Idris Ali from the Sylhet Metropolitan area on Sunday night."
Investigation Officer Arman Ali stated in the remand petition that as per the evidence found during the investigation, it is primarily being suspected that Idris Ali was directly or indirectly involved with the murder.
The CID also suspects that Idris is a member of the banned radical Islamist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, the investigation officer mentioned.
He said: "It is necessary to interrogate him [Idris] to reveal the mystery behind the murder and identify the killers."
Police were first assigned to investigate the murder. Later, the case was handed over to CID as police failed to make any headway in identifying the killers.
Ananta Bijoy Dash was hacked to death by men armed with machetes when leaving his home for work in Sylhet town on May 12.
Ananta's elder brother Ratneshwar Das filed a case over the murder on that night.
Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed responsibility for the brutal murder of Ananta.
Ananta was the editor of the science-based Magazine Jukti, and he regularly contributed to the Mukto-Mona blog whose founder Avijit Roy was slain on February 26.
Ananta also received the Mukto-Mona Rationalist Award in 2006. He wrote 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. In his blogs, he was also critical of the fundamentalists' politics.
