Four charged with online activist Oyasiqur Rahman’s murder

The family of online activist Md Oyasiqur Rahman alias Babu has filed a police case bringing murder charges against four people.

Rahman’s brother-in-law Monir Hossain Masud lodged it around 10:30pm Monday at Tejgaon Police Station, OC Md Salahuddin told bdnews24.com.

Those named in the case are ‘Zikrullah, ‘Ariful’, Abu Taher and ‘Masum’.

Rahman was hacked to death around 9:45am at Tejgaon industrial area’s South Begunbarhi by three assailants with sharp weapons on a street near the mess he lived.

Several transgender people and local residents caught Zikrullah and Ariful from the scene right after the attack. Taher had managed to flee.

The three were named in the case following their confessions during preliminary interrogation, said OC Salahuddin.

An assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Tejgaon zone, asking not to be named, told bdnews24.com: “Masum had coordinated the attack and told the three attackers to kill Oyasiqur at that South Begunbarhi spot.”

“The arrestees don’t know each other. They didn’t even meet before.”

The police official said they were looking into the information the arrestees were providing during questioning.

Police earlier in the day said the arrestees claimed that Rahman was killed for his writings on religious issues.

Twenty-seven-year old Rahman was working at a travel agency called Fareast Aviation at Motijheel as a trainer after completing his studies from Tejgaon College.

He was mainly active on Facebook where he used to write on religion, science and against communalism.

Rahman’s body has been taken to his ancestral home at Hajipur village in Lakshmipur’s Ramganj from the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital morgue.