Police charge five ‘Ansarullah members’ with blogger Washikur’s murder

Detective police have pressed charges in court against five people over the killing of blogger Washikur Rahman Babu.

They are alleged to be members of the banned militant group, Ansarullah Bangla Team.

The accused are Ariful Islam, ‘Jikrullah’, Saiful Islam, Junaid alias Taher and Hasib alias Abdullah.

Locals nabbed Ariful and Jikrullah from the scene after the murder at Tejgaon on Mar 30.

Police arrested Saiful from Jatrabarhi a few days before the murder for the possession of sharp weapons and later implicated him in the case for allegedly plotting the crime.

Two other accused are on the run.

Police claim Abdullah masterminded and executed Babu’s murder.

Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police’s Deputy Commissioner Sajjadur Rahman told bdnews24.com the chargesheet had been filed at the metropolitan magistrate’s court around Tuesday noon.

Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam later told reporters they were investigating the involvement of two other suspects in theMar 30 incident.

“We’ll include their names in the supplementary chargesheet once the investigation is over,” he added.

Babu, who wrote against religious fundamentalism on the internet, was hacked to death while going to office from his Tejgaon residence.

The incident took place barely a month after writer-blogger Avijit Roy was killed on the Dhaka University campus in a similar fashion.

Babu’s brother-in-law filed a case with Tejgaon police the same day, naming Jikrullah, Ariful, Abu Taher and Masum. The case was later shifted to the DB.

An official involved with the investigation, said they were probing the role of three others – Masum alias Iqbal Hadi, 30, ‘Sharif’, 32, and ‘Abrar’, 25 – in the killing.

Detectives say they have named 40 people as witnesses in the chargesheet.