Twenty-year-old Shihab alias Sumon alias Saiful has been nabbed from Dhaka’s Uttara on Wednesday night, said senior Detective Branch officer Mashrukur Rahman Khaled.
“He has admitted to being directly involved in the attack on Suddhaswar owner Ahmedur Rashid Tutul during initial interrogation,” the police deputy commissioner told bdnews24.com.
Police said Shihab belongs to the banned militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team.
On May 19, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police said they had identified six militants to have been involved in the murder of bloggers, secular writers and a publisher and announced a reward of Tk 1.8 million for information leading to their arrest.
Police officer Khaled said Shihab hails from Chandpur, but was brought up in Chittagong. He had been working as a salesman for a medical equipment store in the port city.
“He told police that he was the one who hacked at Tutul and that five persons in all were involved in the attack.”
On Oct 31 last year, Tutul and secular writers Tarek Rahim and Ranadipam Basu were viciously attacked at the office of Suddhaswar.
The three survived the attack, but another publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, who was attacked in his own office, did not.
Dipan's body was found in a pool of blood in the office of his Jagriti Prokashony hours after the attack at Tutul's office.
Both had published books by secular writer-blogger Avijit Roy who was murdered in February last year.
At a media briefing on Thursday, DMP Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam said on Feb 19, the Detective Branch busted two hideouts of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) at Dhaka’s Mohammadpur and Satarkul.
The dens were being used as ‘military training centre’ and a ‘bomb-making training centre’ for operatives of the banned militant group.
Islam said two ABT activists were held during the Feb 19 raids, which led to the arrests of seven more ABT operatives in Dhaka and Chittagong.
“Shihab was arrested on Wednesday night near the Dhaka airport upon information provided by the previously arrested ABT operatives.
“He has admitted to receiving training on bomb-making at the group’s Mohammadpur hideout,” said the chief of DMP’s Counter-terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit.
Islam added that they had obtained further information on the six militants, for whom they had announced rewards.