Shibir man on 5-day remand

A Pabna court yesterday placed an Islami Chhatra Shibir leader on a five-day remand in a case filed for the murder of Nityaranjan Pandey, who was a sebak (volunteer) at a local Hindu ashram.

The additional chief judicial magistrate court passed the order after Pabna Sadar Police Station Officer-in-charge Abdul Kuddus, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, produced the accused before the court with a 10-day remand plea.

The accused is Ariful Islam, general secretary of Pabna district west unit of Shibir, a pro-Jamaat-e-Islami body.

Shibir in a press release has said Ariful was "framed" for the murder, reports our correspondent. 

Nityaranjan, 60, was hacked to death on Friday morning when he was taking his regular morning walk about half a kilometre away from the monastery in Hemayetpur.

Later, Islamic State claimed responsibility for the killing, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors global terror activities.

Acting on a tip off, police arrested the Shibir leader from a house in Bazitpur area and seized his cell phone on Sunday, said the IO.

He also claimed to have got some “important information” about the murder from the phone.

The OC said several text messages were sent to the number of one of Ariful's friends in which the arrestee mentioned the murder of Nityaranjan.

“In one of the messages, he [Ariful] said he would state the names of the killers later,”  

OC Abdul Kuddus said they would be able to glean more information from Ariful during his remand. He added that they were trying to identify and detain the friend of the arrestee.

“We are investigating the case considering many issues, including [the involvement of] religious fundamentalists,” added the IO. “However, we cannot tell you anything clearly before the investigation is complete.”

On Sunday night, police arrested Abul Hashem, 40, a key suspect in the case, at Hemayetpur. He was placed on a five-day remand on Monday.