Bangladesh bloggers' murder:?Main suspect?dead in gunfight with police

The main suspect in the murder of the Bangladesh bloggers,AvijitRoy andNiladriChattopadhyayNiloy, was killed in analleged gunfight with the police in capital Dhaka'sKhilgaonarea early on Sunday.

The suspect,SharifulaliasSakibalias Sharif alias Saleh aliasArifalias Hadi-1, was a toporganiserofAnsarullahBangla Team (ABT), Bangladeshnewspaper,The Daily Star, reportedMusudurRahman, a Dhaka police officeras saying. ABT is a banned militant group.

The "gunfight"apparently took placeatMeradiyaBanshpottiat about 2.00 am on Sunday.

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The police had claimed they found evidence thatSharifulwas present atDhaka University whereAvijitRoy was hacked to death withmacheteson February 26, 2015 and of his involvement even in the killing ofNiladriNiloy.

Shariful, who was originally from Khulna,played an important role in the recruitment of ABT members, apart from providing training infirearms and information technologyto the new recruits, as per the Dhaka metropolitan police's website.

Hewas also linked to the murder attempt onpublisher Ahmed RashidTutulatLalmatiaandthekilling ofRiyadMorshedBabu, a student of Shanta Mariam University.

This is not all, the police saidSharifulwasone of the brains behind the murders ofJagritiProkashoniowner,FaisalArefinDipan, bloggerOyashiqurRahmanBabu, secular activistNazimUddinSamadand LGBT rights activistXulhazMannanand his friendMahbubTonoy.

The alleged gun fight took place within hours ofanothersuspected militant, nineteen-year-oldGolamFaizullahFahim, being killed in areported ambushwhen he was taken along on a search for his Islamist associates, the police claimed.

The search team was reportedlyambushed in a farmland.Faizullahwas in police custody for questioning for attacking Hindu mathematics lecturer RiponChakrabartiand grievously injuring himin Bangladesh'sMadaripur. Eyewitnesses managed to catch him and hand him to the police.

As per the police,Fahimwas a college student and was a member of the banned Islamist groupHizbut-Tahrir--an international group which wants to combine all Muslim countries in a unitary Islamic state. The group is outlawed in several countries, including Bangladesh.

Seven suspected Islamist militants have now been shot dead since Bangladesh launched a nationwide crackdown on local jihadist groups in the wake of a spike in the murders of secular activists and religious minorities.

The drive has seen more than 11,000 people including 194 militants arrested over the past week despite widespread criticism by local and international human rights groups.

Nearly 50 people have been killed over the last three years in a wave of gruesome murders targeting Hindus, Christians, Sufi Muslims, secular activists and foreigners, with most blamed on or claimed by Islamist militants.

Many of the victims were hacked to death with machetes.
(WION)