Two brothers remanded after arrest in Sylhet over blogger Ananta’s murder

Police have arrested two more men in Sylhet’s Kanaighat Upazila for their suspected involvement in the murder of blogger Ananta Bijoy Das.

They are Mannan Yahia, 24, and his brother Mohaimin Noman, 21, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Special Superintendent Abdullahel Baki told bdnews24.com on Friday night.

Baki said the duo was detained from their home at Purba Paljur village early on Friday morning.

“Yahia has been making posts on Facebook against bloggers under different profiles opened under various names such as Mannan Hira, Mannan Rahi and Abdul Mumin.”

The CID official said Yahia got himself admitted in the English department at the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in 2009.

But he dropped out before completing his Bachelor’s degree..

After studying at Jindabarhi Fazil Madrasa, his brother Noman took admission at MC College in Sylhet. But he also dropped out before taking the HSC examinations.
 

Ananta Bijoy Das

Police, after arresting the two, presented them before a Sylhet court later on Friday.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shahedul Karim granted police seven days to question them.

Ananta Bijoy Das was the third of the four bloggers hacked to death this year.

On May 12, four assailants murdered the secular blogger in broad daylight in Sylhet’s Subidbazar two months after the killing of writer-blogger Avijit Roy.

Das was an activist of the Ganajagaran Mancha, the forum demanding a ban on religion-based parties and maximum penalty for convicted war criminals.

The 31-year-old used to blog on 'Mukto-mona’, a website propagating rationalism and opposing fundamentalism started by Roy, who was killed in February in Dhaka.

Police on June 8 arrested a press photographer of a local newspaper in Sylhet for his suspected involvement in Das’ murder.