Bangladesh blogger murder: Dhaka court indicts five activists of banned militant outfit

Dhaka: A Dhaka court on Wednesday charged five activists of a banned militant outfit for the 2015 murder of popular blogger Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, who wrote against the Jamaat-e-Islami and radical Islamists. [caption id=“attachment_2904890” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] People protest against the recent murder of activists and bloggers. AFP[/caption] An additional metropolitan magistrate court indicted the Ansarullah Bangla Team militants and fixed 4 August for depositions by witnesses, bdnews24 reported. Three of the suspects were presented in the court for the hearing, an official said. The remaining two are absconding and will be tried in absentia, the official added. On the morning of 30 March, 2015, machete-wielding religious fundamentalists hacked Oyasiqur to death near his home in Dhaka’s Tejgaon area. Oyasiqur’s attackers targeted his neck and head, similar to previous attacks on bloggers, Ahmed Rajib Haider and Avijit Roy. According to bdnews24, one of the arrested is a madrassa student from Hathazari area of Chittagong and the other attends a madrassa situated in Dhaka’s Mirpur area. Locals managed to nab two of the attackers and handed them over to law enforcers while the third suspect was arrested by police later. According to the Dhaka Tribune, Oyasiqur worked as a travel agency executive and had over 2,600 friends on Facebook. The blogger wrote under pseudonyms on popular blogs. On his Facebook account, Oyasiqur wrote several notes opposing irrational religious beliefs, superstitions and radical Islamists. He was also an admirer of Avijit Roy, a US-based Bangladeshi – founder of Mukto Mona, a web forum for South Asian rationalists – who was hacked to death on 26 February, 2015. Oyasiqur wrote against Jamaat-e-Islami and radical Islamist groups. He was also vocal against human rights violations on the religious minorities and indigenous people of the country. Oyasiqur was member of eight Facebook group pages including Atheist Bangladesh.