2 get death for killing blogger

Court awards various jail terms to 6, including Ansarullah Bangla team chief

A Bangladesh court on Thursday sentenced two students to death and awarded various jail terms to six persons, including outlawed Ansarullah Bangla Team chief for killing activist Ahmed Rajib Haider, the first of a string of brutal murders of secular bloggers.

“They (the two convicts) shall be hanged by neck until they are dead,” special trial tribunal-3 judge Sayeed Ahmed said, delivering the first verdict in over a series of murders of “atheists” in the Muslim-majority nation.

The judge sentenced former private university students Mohammed Faisal Bin Nayem alias Dweep and absconding Redwanul Azad Rana to death. They were also fined 10,000 Taka each.

The court also found outlawed Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) chief Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani and five others guilty.

Rahmani was given five years of jail and Taka 2,000 in fine with two months of additional imprisonment in default.

Maksudul Hasan, alias Anik, was given life term with a fine of Taka 10,000. Mohammed Ehsan Reza, alias Rumman, Nayem Sikdar alias Iraj and Nafis Imtiaz were given 10-year jail with Taka 5,000 fine each. Sadman Yasir Mahmud was given three years in prison and Taka 2,000 in fine.

These students had vowed to kill “atheist bloggers”, the investigation officer said in the chargesheet. They targeted Rajib “for his blog posts under the nick of Thabababa” and carried out the murder in two separate groups.

Machete-wielding assailants hacked to death 35-year-old Rajib, an architect by profession and an activist of Shahbagh movement, near his house at Mirpur area here in February 2013.