Militant accused of murdering Hindu priest killed in B’desh
6 Aug 2016 6:13 AM IST
Shafiul Islam, 22, was being driven to a police station on Thursday when the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) vehicle was attacked by terrorists. A second person, who was an associate of Shafiul and was among those who attacked the RAB convoy, was also killed in the attack.
Shafiul, suspect in the Sholakia Eid congregation attack in Kishoreganj being held by law enforcers on Eid day.
RAB personnel had detained Shafiul with a bullet wound right after the attack. He was one of the three motorcycle- borne assailants who killed priest Jagneshwar Roy, 50, with sharp weapons in the early hours of February 21, Daily Star reported.
Roy headed the Santo Gaurio temple at Panchagarh’s Debiganj.
A RAB official said Shafiul had been undergoing treatment at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) under RAB custody since he was arrested. After doctors discharged him on Thursday, he was being taken to Kishoreganj to be handed over to the police, he said.
Three security personnel were also injured in the clashes and two motorcycles, arms and bullets were recovered from the spot.
RAB claimed the gun battle took place while militants were trying to take Shafiul away. Bombs exploded near an Eid prayer gathering in Sholakia in northern Kishoreganj district on July 7 where at least 200,000 people had gathered. Four persons, including two policemen and a Hindu woman, were also killed in the attack.
Shafiul was a member of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB), which is accused of carrying out a wave of killings of foreigners and religious minorities.
5 killers identified in Bangla gay magazine editor’s murder
Five killers have been identified in the hacking to death of Bangladesh’s first gay magazine editor and his friend here in a gruesome machete attack following leads from an arrested militant from a banned terror group in the high-profile case, a media report said on Friday.
Detectives are trying to arrest these five individuals who investigators have identified as taking part in the April 25 killing of Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Tonoy, an official of the Detective Branch (DB) told bdnews24.com requesting anonymity. “Police have gathered information on the killers after arresting and interrogating members of Ansar Al Islam (militant outfit which claims to be the Bangladesh affiliate of al-Qaeda) on various occasions. Then they identified the killers of Mannan and Tonoy,” said the DB official.
“The killers are in the country. The effort to arrest them is ongoing.” Bahauddin Faruki, the DB officer in charge of the case’s investigation, said the police have received some information on the murders after the arrest of Shariful Islam alias Shihab, a member of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, on May 15.
“Shihab supplied weapons to the killers. We got some important information after he was remanded twice in custody.
He is now in prison,” he said. Mannan, 35, editor of a magazine for Bangladesh’s gay and lesbian community, and 25-year-old fellow activist Tonoy were hacked to death by up to seven attackers carrying machetes and guns after entering their apartment here posing as delivery men.
Xulhaz was a US embassy staff and a leading campaigner for LGBT rights. He was also editor of Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine “Roopbaan”.
Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed responsibility for the killings, that took place amid a series of murders of intellectuals, writers and minorities in the Muslim-majority nation.
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