Publisher Bachchu murder suspects killed in 'shootout'

Police in Munshiganj said two suspected militants, who were allegedly involved in the murder of publisher Shahjahan Bachchu, have died in a 'shootout'.
The incident was reported at the early hours of Thursday at the Sreenagar Upazila.
The victims have been identified as Kaka alias Shamim and Ekhlas, who the police claim were operatives of banned outfit Jama'at ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Superintendent of Police Md Zayedul Alam said, "Shamim and Ekhlas, who were on a motorbike, were asked by police to stop at a security check post. But the duo opened fire when police retaliated. They were shot dead while three policemen sustained injuries."
The senior police officer said Shamim and Ekhlas were involved in the killing of Shahjahan Bachchu, before adding "Details will be provided in a media call later."

Unidentified assailants shot dead Bacchu, who owned the Dhaka-based publishing house Bishakha Prakashani, on the evening of Jun 11 in his native Sirajdikhan Upazila in Mushiganj.
A free-thinking writer, the 60-year-old was a former general secretary of the Munshiganj chapter of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB).
Deaths of secular writers, bloggers, online activists and a publisher in attacks by suspected Islamist militants shook Bangladesh for months following the 2015 killing of US-based writer-blogger Avijit Roy near the TSC in the Dhaka University campus.
His publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, who ran Jagriti Prokashoni, was hacked to death on Oct 31 the same year inside his publishing house in the capital’s Shahbagh.
Hours before Dipan’s murder, terrorists attacked publisher Ahmedur Rashid Tutul of Shuddhaswar Prakashani in his office in Dhaka’s Lalmatia. He, however, survived the attack.
Radical Islamist groups claimed credit for most of these attacks and the law enforcers have made several arrests in connection with the attacks.

Case started over writer-publisher Bachchu murder