5 Rajib murder accused remanded

A Dhaka court Saturday granted police seven days to grill in custody the five North South University students in connection with the murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 2 March 2013, 06:58 AM
Updated : 2 March 2013, 07:02 AM

Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Tanvir Ahmed passed the order after the Investigation Officer and Police Detective Branch (DB) Inspector Mailnul Islam produced the five in the court with a 10-day remand prayer.

Following overnight raids Friday, police arrested the five from various parts of the city.

“They have already confessed to murdering Ahmed Rajib Haider,” DB spokesperson Monirul Islam said in a media briefing Saturday.

The five said they killed the blogger-architect on instructions from an Islami Chhatra Shibir activist, the detectives said. "They said killing Rajib was their Iman (religious) obligation," Islam said.

The nabbed Faisal Bin Nayeem, 22, Maksudul Hassan, 26, Ehsanur Reza Roman, 23, Nayeem Sikder, 19, and Nasir Imtiaz, 22, all students of various departments of the private university.

The remand plea read the murder was pre-planned and the killers had followed Rajib from Shahbagh’s “Prajanma Chattar” the day the incident happened.

It also said the law enforcers had found initial proof of their involvement in the killing.

Faisal lives in Dhaka’s Matuail, Maksud in Keraniganj, Roman is from Jhenaidah, Nayeem from Brahmanbaria and Nasir is a resident of Swandip of Chittagong.

Rajib was hacked to death in Pallabi of Dhaka in the night of Feb 15 - the 10th day of Shahbagh protests.

Relatives and friends blamed the Jamaat-e-Islami for the murder, saying he was killed for the blogs he wrote to bring 'war criminals' to justice.

Shahbagh's 'Ganajagaran Mancha' described Rajib as ‘the first martyr’ of the movement which seeks death for war criminals and a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami.