Bangladesh blogger murder probe makes headway; two arrested

“Two of the suspects are now in our custody... they are Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) members,” a police spokesman said in connection with Niloy Chakrabarty Neel’s murder at his flat here last Friday. The police spokesman identified the detained suspects as Saad-al-Nahin and Masud Rana and said they were under surveillance as suspected ABT members.

Nahin, <g data-gr-id="24">nephew</g> of the State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu, was earlier arrested along with three others in <g data-gr-id="25">April,</g> 2013 for attempting to murder blogger Asif Mohiuddin in January that year. They were later freed on bail, The Daily Star reported.

The arrests came amid criticism of <g data-gr-id="30">police</g> after Inspector General Shahidul Haque asked the bloggers not to “cross the limit” or write anything which hurts religious beliefs of others. Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also stood by the police chief in urging the bloggers to be cautious but said all steps were being taken to arrest the culprits and “they cannot evade justice”.

“Neel wrote nothing which could have hurt anyone in that way... actually the extremist Islamists are trying to create space for themselves using religion,” Neel’s friend and fellow blogger Meraj Mohamad said.

A Dhaka court on Friday placed the duo on an eight-day remand each. Their remand is needed in a bid to recover machetes, stolen goods and to arrest fugitives involved with the killing, said Mahbubur Rahman, investigation officer of the case.