Charges against 8 Rajib murder accused accepted

Blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider. File photo

A Dhaka court today accepted charges against Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, chief of emerging militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team, and seven students of North South University in blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider murder case.

Rajib, also an activist of the Shahbagh movement, was hacked to death in the capital’s Pallabi on February 15 last year.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sabrina Ali took the charges into cognisance today after scrutinising the case diary and relevant documents.

The court issued an arrest warrant against fugitive accused Redwanul Azad Rana of Dagonbhuiyan upazila in Feni and also ordered to attach his property.

The court directed the officers-in-charge of Dagonbhuiyan and Pallabi police stations in Feni and Dhaka respectively to submit a report by March 20 on execution of the arrest warrant. 

On January 28, detectives charged Mufti Jasimuddin and seven NSU students including Rana in the murder case.

Among the accused, Jasimuddin and six NSU students -- Md Faisal Bin Nayem alias Dweep, Maksudul Hasan alias Anik, Md Ehsan Reza alias Rumman, Nayem Sikdar alias Iraj, Nafis Imtiaz and Sadman Yasir Mahmud -- are behind bars. 

The investigation officer in the charge sheet said the students had vowed to kill “atheist bloggers” after reading Jasimuddin's books and listening to his sermons.

They targeted Rajib “for his blog posts under the nick of Thabababa” and got divided into two -- “intel group” to collect his details and track him down and the “execution group” to carry out the murder.

The charge sheet mentioned Jasimuddin as the “instigator” while Rana as the “planner”.