The police arrested the main suspect in the killing of a publisher who was hacked to death by Islamist militants in October 2015, the head of the policecounter-terrorism unit in Dhaka said on Wednesda
The police arrested the main suspect in the killing of a publisher who was hacked to death by Islamist militants in October 2015, the head of the policecounter-terrorism unit in Dhaka said on Wednesday.
A reward of 200,000 taka ($2,564) was offered for information leading to the capture of Moinul Hasan Shameem, who the police said had led the attack on the publisher by members of a banned Islamist group, Ansar al Islam.
The victim, Faysal Arefin Dipon, was regarded as secular in outlook and had published books written by his friend Avijit Roy, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin. Roy was killed in February in 2015. He was also hacked to death by Islamist militants.
On the same day that the publisher was killed, militants also attacked another publishing house, seriously wounding three people. The police said Shameem, 24, took orders from a former Army major, Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque, who has emerged as a leading figure in Ansar al-Islam. “Shameem was the leader of that attacking group,” Monirul Islam, Dhaka counter-terrorism chief, said. “After a tip-off, the police arrested him from Tongi, on outskirts of the city on Tuesday night,” he said.
Militants have targeted secularist writers in recent years, as the government has cracked down on Islamist groups.
