7-8 involved in Oyasiqur killing, suspect tells magistrate

A suspect today told a metropolitan magistrate in Dhaka that seven to eight including Zikurullah and Ariful Islam were involved in the killing of blogger Oyasiqur Rahman Babu.

Metropolitan Magistrate SM Masud Zaman recorded the statement of madrassa teacher Mohammad Saiful Islam after Detective Branch Inspector Moshiur Rahman brought him before the magistrate.

Before killing Oyasiqur, two meetings were held at Jatrabari area where Saiful and others were present. They planned to kill the victim as he posted different indecent comments on Facebook about Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PUBH).

But he did not take part in the killing as he was arrested by Jatrabari police on March 24 in an arms case. He knew about the killing even though he is in custody.      

In his statement, Saiful mentioned a name of “big brother” who masterminded the killing. But he did not know his full name. He also mentioned some nick names of the killers as he did not hear their full names, court sources said.

After recording the statement, the court ordered to send Saiful to jail.     

Oyasiqur, 27, son of Tipu Sultan of Ramganj in Laxmipur and a staff of a travel agency in Motijheel, was hacked to death by three cleaver-wielding youths in the capital's Tejgaon on March 30. Zikurullah and Ariful were caught by locals while they were fleeing the spot. They later confessed to the killing.

Saiful was arrested on March 24 in an arms case and later he was shown arrested in the Oyasiqur murder.  Saiful was remanded in the case for eight days.   

Two other killers-- Zikurullah and Ariful—were remanded for 11 days in the killing of the blogger.  

The motive behind the murder appears to be “ideological differences,” police said earlier.

A staunch critic of religious fundamentalism, Oyasiqur was active mostly on Facebook though he used to write in Bangla blogosphere.