Police have pressed charges against eight operatives of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, including its military wing chief sacked Bangladesh Army major Syed Ziaul Haque in the 2015 murder of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan.
The Detective Branch filed the chargesheet with court on Tuesday (Oct 30) after securing the home ministry’s clearance, Counterterrorism Unit chief Monirul Islam told the media.
The seven others charged with the killing are Mainul Hasan Shamim, Abdus Sabur Samad, Khairul Islam, Abu Siddiq Sohel, Mozammel Hossain, Sheikh Abdullah and Akram Hossain.
Of them, suspect Akram Hossain is a fugitive as well as sacked Major Zia.
The six suspects behind bars have confessed to their involvement in the killing before a magistrate.
On Oct 31 2015, publisher Dipan was found dead in a pool of blood, hacked to death in his Jagriti Prokashony office at Shahbagh's Aziz Super Market in Dhaka.
Prior to Dipan’s murder on the same day, Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, owner of Suddhaswar, another publishing house, and the secular writers Tarek Rahim and Ranadipam Basu faced a vicious attack at Tutul's Lalmatia office.
The three, however, survived the attack with critical injuries.
Both Tutul and Dipan had published books by the secular writer-blogger Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death in February the same year in front of the Teacher Student Centre (TSC) on the Dhaka University campus.