Rajib murder accused told to surrender

The Supreme Court has ordered Sadman Yasir Mahmud, an accused in the murder of online activist Ahmed Rajib Haider, to surrender within 2 weeks after he secured bail from the High Court. Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique gave the order following a prosecution appeal on Wednesday. A full bench will hear the case on Monday (June 16). Mahmud, 20, a business student at North South University of Dhaka, was released from prison a few days after he won a 6-month bail from the bench of justices Naima Haider and Zafar Ahmed on June 1. He is named in the supplementary charge-sheet for the murder of the Ganajagaran Mancha activist last year. ’He got bail because his studies were at stake and also because he only knew about the murder plans but was not directly involved,' his lawyer BM Ilias Kachi said. But police have accused Mahmud of being present when Haider was hacked to death in front of his Mirpur home on Feb 15 last year, just days after Ganajagaram Mancha, a movement led by bloggers demanding capital punishment for wartime offences, was launched at Shahbagh intersection, according to bdnews24.com.