Police press charges against nine militants

Police have pressed charges against nine members of Ansar al-Islam, a militant organisation popularly known as Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), in a case filed over the murder of blogger Nazim Uddin in Old Dhaka in 2016, report agencies.

Nazim Uddin Samad, a law student of Jagannath University, was hacked to death by some unidentified miscreants at Ekrampur intersection in Laxmibazar area when he was returning to his residence on April 6, 2016.

A case was filed with Sutrapur thana over the incident and later the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of police was assigned to investigate the case.

After looking into the incident, police found involvement of Ansar al-Islam and pressed charges against nine members of the militant organisation under the Anti-Terrorism Act on August 18.

According to the CTTC sources, the militants planned to assassinate Nazim Uddin for his controversial writing on the blogs.

On the fateful day, Nazim was hacked to death as per a plot made by Major (expelled) Syed Ziaul Haqe, chief of the militant organisation's military wing.

A total of 12 people were accused in the murder case. On August 18, Police pressed charges against nine of them - four arrested and five absconding. Bafflingly, the remaining three could not be accused due to lack of records.

The arrestees are Md Rashidun Nabi Bhuiyan (28), Mozammel Hussain alias Saymon (25), Md Arafat Rahman (24), and Sheikh Abdullah (27).

They all gave confessional statements before the court.