Bangladesh police on Sunday said they have identified and arrested three people involved in the killing of LGBT rights activist Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Tonoy who were hacked to death on April 25 in Dhaka.
Monirul Islam, chief of the counter-terror unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Poice, told journalists on Sunday that police have arrested Shariful Islam Shihab, an active member of the banned outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, from the western Kushtia district in connection with the murders. The group, which claims to be an affiliate of al-Qaeda, has so far claimed responsibility for the killings of many bloggers, activists and teachers.
Investigators found that Shihab had also been a member of another banned Islamist outfit, Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami, Bangladesh (Huji) before he joined Ansarullah Bangla Team. The detainee is said to have admitted that he supplied one of the two firearms found at the killing site.
Monk’s killingPolice have also detained three other persons, including two Rohinyas, over Saturday’s murder of Buddhist monk Mawng Shoi Wuu in the Bandarban district. Wuu was found dead, his throat silt, at a monastery. His killing bore resemblance to the earlier killings of bloggers and activists. However, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal had described the monk’s murder as a ‘random incident’.
The Home Minister also claimed significant progress in the probe into Rajshahi university professor Rezaul Karim Siddiquee’s murder, telling that the investigation was “in the final stage”.
