Counterterrorism investigators have prepared a charge-sheet against six suspects, including sacked army major Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque, in the 2015 killing of writer-blogger Avijit Roy.
The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) have sent the charge sheet to the Home Ministry for its approval, DMP Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam told the media on Monday (Feb 18).
After the ministry’s approval, the chargesheet will be sent to the court, he said.
The CTTC unit found the involvement of 11 people in the killing mission. The unit arrested Mozammel Hossain Saimon, Sohel Rana and Arafat who gave their confessional statements.
“Four of them are now in jails while two others including major Zia and Akram went into hiding. Of the arrestees, Saimon Sohel and Arafat gave confessional statement under section 164 to this end,” Islam informed.
The six ABT men who are going to be charge-sheeted in the case are: Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque Zia (sacked major of Bangladesh Army), 42, and Akram Hossain alias Abir alias Adnan alias Hasibul alias Abdullah, 30, Mozammel Hossain alias Saimon (organisational name Shahriar), Md Abu Siddique Sohel alias Sakib alias Sajid alias Shahab, 34, Md Arafat Rahman, 24 (organisational name Siam alias Sazzad) and Shafiur Rahman alias Farabi, 29.
Fugitives major Zia and Akram are the masterminds of the killing while Farabi was charged for instigating the murder, he said, adding that Md Mukul Rana alias Shafiqul Islam alias Hadi, who was involved in the killing, died in a shootout with Detective Branch (DB) of police.
Bangladeshi American writer, Avijit Roy, who founded the blog ‘Muktomona’ (free thinkers) and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya were attacked on the night of Feb 26, 2015, on the Dhaka University Campus.
Machete-wielding men attacked the couple as they came out from the Ekushey Book Fair.
Avijit suffered a deep gash on his head and died while Bonya survived but lost a finger in the assault.
Islamist zealots had been threatening Avijit, a bioengineer and a naturalised US citizen, for his active campaign against Islamist radicals, for quite some time.
His father Ajay Roy, a well-known physicist who has taught at the Dhaka University for a long time, started a police case over the incident.
Since the killing of Avijit, several others, including online activists, writers, publishers, members from the minority communities have been attacked or killed in a similar fashion by machete-wielding attackers, targeting the head to ensure immediate death.