B’desh charges 5 militants over blogger murder

Five militants of an al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group in Bangladesh were on Tuesday charged with murder for hacking to death an atheist blogger who is among the four secular writers killed in brutal attacks this year.

“We have submitted the <g data-gr-id="11">chargesheet</g> before the (Dhaka’s) chief metropolitan magistrate court on the blogger Washiqur Rahman’s killing...they all are members of (banned) Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT),” a police spokesman told reporters.

He said two of the accused were now in jail to face trial in person while the three others were absconding and were to be tried in absentia unless they surrender or could be arrested.

27-year-old Rahman was hacked to death on March 30 when ABT militants attacked him with machetes. Transgenders living near the place where the incident took place nabbed two of the killers and handed them over to police.