No significant progress so far

Although the first ever verdict in a blogger killing case came yesterday, probes into the murders of most other bloggers and a publisher saw no significant progress last year.

Investigators are yet to submit the charge sheets in cases over the murders of bloggers Avijit Roy, Niladri Chattopadhyay Niloy and Ananta Bijoy Das. They only managed to arrest several suspects.

In September, detectives pressed charges against five suspected Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) members in the Oyasiqur Rahman killing case, but two of them are still on the run.

Yesterday, a Dhaka court handed down death penalty to two members of the banned outfit -- Faisal bin Nayem alias Dweep and absconding Redwanul Azad Rana -- for the murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.

ABT chief Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, a key accused in the case, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment as well.

Rajib, also a Gonojagoron Mancha activist, was hacked to death near his home in Mirpur in February 2013.

Four other bloggers -- Avijit, Oyasiqur, Ananta and Niladri -- were killed in a similar fashion by suspected militants in seven months since February last year. The incidents took place in Dhaka and Sylhet.

Moreover on October 30 last year, assailants stabbed to death publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, owner of Jagriti Prokashoni, in the capital's Shahbagh.

The same day, publisher Ahmedur Rashid Tutul of Shuddhoswar Prokashoni, and two bloggers were attacked in Lalmatia.

Both Dipan and Tutul were Avijit's publishers.

The Detective Branch (DB) of police of Dhaka Metropolitan Police is investigating all the cases except for the one for Ananta's murder. His case is being handled by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

On February 26, US-born Bangladeshi writer and blogger Avijit was hacked to death and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya was critically injured in an attack near TSC on the Dhaka University campus.

Although 10 months have passed since then, no major headway has been made in the probe. But detectives say they have arrested eight people in the case.

In August, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) detained three people, including Touhidur Rahman, a Bangladesh-born UK citizen, and claimed they were behind the killings of Avijit and Ananta.

The elite force claimed Touhidur had masterminded the murders but his family refuted it. They also alleged that plainclothes law enforcers had picked him up from his home at Dhanmondi.

Earlier, Shafiur Rahman Farabi, an alleged Hizb-ut Tahrir leader, was held at Jatrabari in Avijit murder case. However, law enforcers have not been able to prove his hand in the killing.

The DB has sent some evidence to the FBI in the US for forensic tests. However, they are yet to receive the results, said a DMP official.

Blogger Oyasiqur was hacked to death in broad daylight in the capital's Tejgaon area on March 30.

Locals chased and caught two madrasa students and handed them over to the police while another suspect was detained at a checkpoint in Wari two days before the murder. The two students had told the police that he was supposed to be with them during the murder.

A Dhaka court on September 30 took cognisance of the charges against five suspected ABT members in the case. The other two key accused are absconding.

Blogger Ananta, also an activist of Sylhet Gonojagoron Mancha, was stabbed to death in Sylhet on May 12.

Six days later, police arrested three people, including a nephew of State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu.

Special Superintendent (organised crime) Mirza Abdullahel Baqui of CID, who is involved in the investigation, said a suspect in the case gave his confessional statement before a Sylhet court recently.

He claimed they would arrest two to three more suspects before submitting the charge sheet.

Niladri Chattopadhyay Niloy was hacked to death inside his house at Khilgaon on August 7.

Devjyoti Rudro, a freethinker and friend of the slain blogger, yesterday said he had communicated with the detectives some two months ago. He was told that the investigation was underway.

Maruf Hossain Sorder, deputy commissioner (media) of the DMP, also said the same.

Asked about the delay in the probe, he said: “I can't say anything when the investigation is on.”

The DB is yet to make any major breakthrough in Dipan murder as well.