Two more militants arrested in connection with Bangladeshi blogger Niloy Neel's murder

Dhaka: Two more members of the banned Ansarullah Bangla Team militant group have been arrested in connection with the hacking to death of a fourth secular blogger Niloy Neel earlier in August that sparked global outrage. Niloy Chakrabarty Neel, 29, popularly known by his pen name Niloy Neel, was killed by assailants inside his fifth-floor flat at North Gorhan in the capital Dhaka where he lived with his family on 7 August. [caption id=“attachment_2383508” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Bangladeshi blogger Niloy Neel. Facebook[/caption] The five assailants entered the flat after Friday prayers, pushed his wife and one of his friends aside and then hacked him to death. Police on Thursday arrested Kausar Hossain Khan and Kamal Hossain Sarder in raids and they are suspected to be members of Ansarullah Bangla Team, Detective Branch Deputy Commissioner Mahbub Alam said. The banned outfit is blamed for attacks on atheist bloggers and writers, bdnews reported. Earlier police had arrested Saad Al Nahin, nephew of junior Labour and Employment Minister Mujibul Haque Chunnu, and Masud Rana for their suspected involvement in the murder. Neel, an official of NGO Ganajagaran Mancha, was known for his secular write ups in blogs. The NGO waged a massive campaign for the capital punishment for war criminals who carried out atrocities siding with the Pakistani troops in 1971. Neel’s murder is the fourth such brutal murder in the country. Machete-wielding masked men in May hacked to death 33-year-old Ananta Bijoy Das, a secular blogger, in Sylhet city. Assailants in February had killed 45-year old Avijit Roy, a Bangladesh-born US national, in Dhaka while his wife narrowly escaped the attack. A month after Roy’s killing, another blogger Washiqur Rahman was murdered in similar fashion in Dhaka but people in the neighbourhood nabbed two suspected killers from the scene and handed them over to police. All three killed were involved with the Ganajagaran Mancha. PTI