Police have pressed charges against eight people, including Sacked Bangladesh Army major Syed Md Ziaul Huq over the 2016 killings of LGBT activist Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Tonoy.
On Sunday (May 12), investigators forwarded the chargesheet to the home ministry for a clearance, said Additional Deputy Commissioner Touhidul Islam of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Dhaka metro police.
According to the charge sheet, all the eight accused are members of banned militant outfit Ansar Al Islam.
As of now, four of them have been arrested. They are- Mozammel Husain alias Saimon, 25, Md Arafat Rahman, 24, Sheikh Abdullah, 27, and Asadullah, 25.
They have given confessional statements before a court.
The other four who are absconding are- sacked major Zia, 42, Akram Hossain, 30, Sabbirul Haque Chowdhury, 26, and Md Zunaid Ahmad alias Maulana Zuned alias Zunaid, 26.
During its investigation, CTTC found involvement of 13 people in the crime. However, detailed information about five of the suspects could not be gathered.
On Apr 25, 2016, Xulhaz, an LGBT activist and a local employee of USAID, and his friend, Mahbub Tonoy, a theatre activist, were hacked to death by armed assailants at the former’s Kalabagan residence in the capital.
The next day, Minhaz Mannan Emon, brother of Xulhas, lodged a murder case with Kalabagan police station.
Initially, the Detective Branch of DMP investigated the killings. Later, in November 2017, CTTC took over the investigation.