Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Bangladesh arrests three over bloggers’ killings

Police in Bangladesh say they have arrested three men, including a British citizen, in connection with the killing of two bloggers earlier this year.
Rapid Action Battalion spokesmen said on Tuesday that they have arrested Touhidur Rahman, 58, and two other “active members” of Ansarullah Bangla Team, which was banned in May over a spate of killings of bloggers.
“We’ve arrested them in the capital [Dhaka] today. We can confirm that Rahman is a Bangladesh origin British citizen. He is the main planner of the attacks on Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das,” Major Maksudul Alam told AFP news agency.
At least 14 other members belonging to several groups have been arrested this year in connection with the violent deaths of bloggers in the South Asian country.
Four bloggers have been killed since January. On May 12, Ananta Bijoy Das was killed in the Subid Bazar area of northern Sylhet district while American writer-blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death near the Dhaka University campus in February.
In March, blogger Washiqur Rahman Babu was brutally killed in Dhaka by three men over alleged anti-Islamic writings, with two of the suspected attackers caught near the scene.
The latest killing took place on August 7, when blogger Niloy Chatterjee, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel, was murdered.

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