Police today pressed charges against eight people in a case filed over the killing of LGBT magazine editor Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy in 2016. 

The charge sheet has been submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs for approval, said Mohibul Islam, deputy commissioner of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

Eight activists of banned militant outfit Ansar Al Islam have been shown accused in the charge sheet. They are: Syed Md Ziaul Huq alias Major Zia (sacked army major), 42; Akram Hossain; Sabbirul Haque Chowdhury, 26; Md Zunaid Ahmad alias Maulana Zuned alias Zunaid, 26; Mozammel Husain alias Saimon, 25; Md Arafat Rahman, 24; Md Sheikh Abdullah, 27; and Asadullah, 25.

Of them, Major Zia, Akram, Sabbirul and Zunaid have been shown absconding while the four others were shown arrested in the case.

Names of five other accused have been excluded in the charge sheet as their identities and addresses are yet to be known.  

Xulhaz, also a former official of USAID, was brutally hacked to death at his Kalabagan residence along with his friend Tonoy by the militants on April 25, 2016.

A case was filed with Kalabagan Police Station on the same day in this connection.

Initially Detective Branch (DB) of DMP took over the investigation into the double murder incident.

Later, on November 15 in 2017, DMP’s CTTC unit took over the investigation and arrested four persons in connection with the killings.

Interrogation of the arrestees revealed the names of those involved in the planning and execution of the killings and the organisation behind them.