Rajib murder 'mastermind' held in city

Ahmed Rajib Haider

Detectives on Wednesday arrested a North South University (NSU) student in the capital’s Dhanmondi area in connection to the murder of blogger and activist Ahmed Rajib Haider.

Detectives claimed Sadman Yaseer Mahmud, 20, masterminded the killing of the blogger on February 15 this year.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of DB, Moshiur Rahman said, “Sadman was a business administration student of NSU but left the university after the incident,” quoting the statement of other five NSU students who were arrested on March 5.

He was on the run, but recently came to stay with his parents at Dhanmondi’s North Road, he said.

“He was planning to fly to Malaysia for studies,” Moshiur said, adding that with a tip-off from secret source they conducted the operation between 4:30pm to 5:00pm.

“Seven people were involved in the murder and they formed two groups ‘the intel group’ that provided information on the murder target and the ‘execution group’ that carried out the murder,” said Moshiur adding Sadman belonged to the ‘intel group’.

The five students -- Faisal bin Nayeem alias Dwip, 22, and Maksudul Hassan Anik, 23, of electrical and electronic engineering department, Ehsan Reza Rumman, 23, and Naim Sikder Irad, 19, of electric and telecommunications department and Nafis Imtiaz, 22, of business administration -- arrested earlier told DB police that Sadman is an activist of Islami Chhatra Shibir, student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami.

The activists of the group belong to the extremist militant online-activism based organisation Ansarullah Bangla Team, whose spiritual leader Saikhul Hadith Mufti Muhammad Jasimuddin Rahmani was arrested from Barguna on Tuesday.

Jasimuddin’s sermons and publications instigate and encourage young Muslims to kill anyone who write or talks against Islam or the Prophet.

Detective Branch police source said that operation is still on to arrest the others involved in the Rajib murder.