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RAB produced before media three suspected militants of Ansarullah Bangla Team arrested from Dhaka on Tuesday. It says the mastermind in the killings of secular bloggers Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das is among the arrestees.
RAB says a team of five assailants hacked to death writer-blogger Avijit Roy at the Ekushey Book Fair and the same group executed Sylhet blogger Ananta Bijoy Das within a span of three months.
RAB spokesperson Mufti Mahmud Khan said banned extremist group Ansarullah Bangla Team’s incarcerated chief Jasim Uddin Rahmani had ordered the killings from jail.
He said three of the assailants followed the target while two others took part in the assault.
Khan told reporters on Tuesday that three suspected militants arrested on Monday divulged the information.
The arrestees are – Touhidur Rahman, 58, Sadek Ali Mithu, 28, and Aminul Mallik, 35.
British-Bangladeshi Rahman is one of the masterminds of the killings, according to the security forces.
Khan said Mithu was arrested at Nilkhet on Monday night and Rahman and Mallik were later arrested at Dhanmondi based on Mithu’s information.
Describing Avijit Roy’s killing on Feb 26 on the Dhaka University campus, Khan said, ‘Ramjan’, ‘Nayeem’, Mithu, ‘Julhas’ and ‘Jafran’ had gathered at the Mohsin Hall grounds two hours before the assault.
“Ramjan and Nayeem hacked Avijit to death.
“This five-member team killed blogger Ananta Bijoy Das the same way in Sylhet,” he added.
But Mithu pleaded innocence before the media when he was produced before journalists after the briefing.
He said he was at his sister’s home in Dhaka at the time of the incidents.
RAB officer Khan said Mithu had sat the 34th BCS examinations.
Secular blogger Roy and his wife were attacked on the DU campus on Feb 26. Roy died while his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya lost a finger.
On May 12, blogger Das was hacked to death in broad daylight in the same manner in Sylhet.
Khan claimed banned extremist group Ansarullah’s chief Rahmani relayed orders for the killings to his supporters through his younger brother Abul Bashar, who visited him in jail regularly.
Mithu, too, had met Rahmani in the same way.
“Touhidur Rahman received information through them and then the killings were planned,” the RAB officer claimed.
Mithu, he said, was involved in publication and met Rahmani in connection with publishing his book.
Aminul Mallik, who was also detained Monday, is a ‘passport broker’ and a fan of Rahmani.
RAB claims he helped Ansarullah members to flee the country with fake passports.
British-Bangladeshi Touhidur Rahman, a former Biman Bangladesh Airlines employee, was the group’s financier, the RAB spokesperson claimed.
He said Mithu, Julhas and Jafran at the behest of Rahman claimed in the social media that Ansarullah was responsible for the killings of Roy and Das.
Source: Bd news24
