Investigations into the killing of several bloggers over the last two years, believed to have been carried out by Islamist extremists, are moving at a snail’s pace, without a single murder trial completed yet.
Since 2013, knife-wielding extremists have attacked six secular-minded bloggers, five with deadly effect.
On Friday, blogger Niladri Chatterjee was the fourth blogger to be hacked to death this year alone. The blogger, who went by the nickname Niloy Neel, was slain in his home in the capital’s Goran neighbourhood by suspected religious fanatics.
So far, only the Ahmed Rajeeb Haider murder trial has made some headway. Charge sheets have not been filed in any of the other cases.
Experts say that delays in bringing suspects to trial have encouraged further killings.
Part of the problem, experts say, is the snail’s pace at which investigations and murder trials progress in Bangladesh.
Imran H Sarker, the spokesperson of Gonojagaran Mancha, told the Dhaka Tribune that bloggers are being killed one after another because the government has not taken a stronger stance on the issue.
He said law enforcement agencies had failed to ensure the security of bloggers who had received death threats.
“If trials were held swiftly and stiff penalties were handed down by the courts, then this might not have happened,” he said.
Others have said that this new spate of ideological violence, largely spilling over from internet and social media altercations, had caught Bangladeshi law enforcers off guard.
Security analyst Maj Gen Abdur Rashid told the Dhaka Tribune that a major reason for militants’ cases not moving forward is the police’s inability to tackle such cases. “Militant groups change their techniques and attitudes almost every month. We need special units to monitor them, research their methods and keep tabs on them in order to catch them.”
Taking a more holistic view, Mizanur Rahman, the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, said such incidents reflect the general decline of the rule of law in society.
“The state needs to ensure proper trials of the accused and proper punishment of convicts to stop this violent movement,” Mizanur said.
The Joint Commissioner of the Detective Branch of police Monirul Islam said limits ought not to be crossed when using blog sites or social media. He said inflammatory comments should be avoided. “The people who are doing this are extremists as well as those who are carrying out killings and we are monitoring both issues and must take action against them.”
On May 12, blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death by masked assailants in the Subid Bazar area of Sylhet city. Three months later, the police are still investigating the case.
Mirza Abdullahel Baqui, special police superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), told the Dhaka Tribune that the police had acquired some leads in the case which he said they were analysing.
On March 30, blogger Oyasiqur Rahman Babu was killed in broad daylight in the Tejgaon Industrial Area of the capital. Three killers carried out the attack and two of them, both madrasa students, were arrested from the spot with machetes in their possession.
The arrestees confessed to police about their involvement in the murder which they claimed was carried out due to ideological differences with the slain blogger.
Despite the arrest of the two madrasa students and a third associate, the police have yet to submit a probe report on the killing.
It was learned that the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court had fixed four dates – April 3, May 28, June 25 and July 29 – for submission of the probe report but the investigating officer of the case missed every one of the deadlines. The court finally directed the investigating officer to submit the probe report on August 26.
Three accused in the murder case, Jikrullah, Arif and Saiful Islam, are currently in jail. Saiful has given a confessional statement before the court under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Haque said the investigation was nearly complete and a charge sheet would be submitted shortly, perhaps by this month.
On February 26, blogger and writer Avijit Roy was killed and his wife brutally hacked near the TSC on the Dhaka University campus.
After the murder, Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate fixed four dates – April 5, May 7, June and 8 July 8 – for the probe report to be submitted. But police Detective Branch (DB) inspector Fazlur Rahman, the investigating officer of the case, failed to submit the report on time. The court has fixed August 16 to submit the probe report.
Monirul Islam, DB joint commissioner, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, that the investigation was under way and seven people had been identified in the murder case.
He said that crime scene evidence had been sent for forensic analysis to the United State’s Federal Bureau of Investigation and said the results would be sent to Bangladesh shortly.
“The case investigation has been delayed because the tests require time to complete. We are hopeful of getting the report soon,” Monirul, also the chief of DB police, said.
On February 15 of 2013, Ahmed Rajeeb Haider was attacked in Pallabi area of the capital ten days after the Gonojagaran Mancha began its Shahbagh movement demanding punishment for war criminals of the Liberation War.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself visited and comforted his bereaved family. Two years later eight people, including the chief of the outlawed militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, have been indicted.
The trial of the Rajeeb murder case is being held at the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 3. But proceedings have been delayed because witnesses have not appeared in court to offer their testimony. On August 9, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 3 deferred the trial proceedings until August 16.
DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said charge sheets had been submitted and seven of the eight suspects had been arrested.
Another blogger, Asif Mohiuddin, was stabbed by suspected Islamist extremists in Uttara on January 14, 2013, but he survived the vicious attack.
On December 31, 2014 DB inspector Nibaron Chandra Barman submitted a charge sheet against seven suspected militants including Ansarullah chief Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani in the case. On January 11, the court accepted the charge sheet against the accused but the trial is yet to start.
When asked the reason for the delay, Tahera Begum, sub-inspector and general recording officer of the court, said the failure of the plaintiff, Asif Mohiuddin, to appear in court despite being issued several notices had delayed the trial.
Delays in the trial of extremists who have murdered secularists, atheists and non-conformist thinkers is not new.
Prof Humayun Azad was attacked on February 27, 2004 while on his way home from the Ekushey book fair in the capital. He succumbed to his injuries in Munich, Germany, on August 11, 2004.
His murder trial, pending in a Dhaka court, is yet to be completed 11 years after the incident took place.
DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam who is investigating most of the blogger murder cases, said Ansarullah Bangla Team was implicated in most of the murders.
He said the outlawed extremist outfit used a network of sleeper cells to carry out their operations, adding that police detectives had not been able to determine the group’s top leadership or the extent of their network.
“Although, we have arrested their chief, Rahmani, their present operational commanders now live abroad and direct the outfit’s activities from beyond our borders. Because of this, the masterminds of the outfit have not been arrested.
The DB has arrested some 50 ABT operatives so far,” Monirul told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Monirul added that if the location of the foreign-based leadership can be determined, Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies will seek Interpol assistance to arrest them.
