A Dhaka court today indicted eight members of banned militant outfit Ansar Al Islam including sacked major Zia ul Haque in a case filed over the murder of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan in 2015.

Six of the accused, now in jail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Judge Majibur Rahman of the Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal read out the charges to them.

The six accused are killing squad leader Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Samir alias Imran, 24; trainer Abdus Sabur alias Samad alias Sujon alias Raju, 23; and top ABT operatives Khairul Islam alias Fahim alias Jishan, 24; Sheikh Abdullah, 27; Abu Siddiq Sohel, 34; and Mozammel Hossain alias Saimon, 25.

The court also issued arrest warrants against two fugitives -- Major Zia and Akram – as they are on the run. 

Faisal Arefin Dipan, 43, the publisher of Jagriti Prokashani was hacked to death at his office in Dhaka's Shahbagh on October 31, 2015.

Later, his wife filed the case with Shahbagh Police Station accusing unknown persons.

Dipan was stabbed twice in the head and once in the neck with a machete, according to the autopsy report.

Just hours before the attack, publisher Ahmedur Rashid Tutul and his friends, bloggers Ranadipam Basu and Tareque Rahim, were injured in a machete attack at Tutul's publishing house Shuddhoswar in Lalmatia.

Both Tutul and Dipan were publishers of writer-blogger Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death by assailants in TSC area of Dhaka University on February 26, 2015.