Two members of a banned al Qaeda- affiliated Bangladeshi militant group including nephew of a minister were today arrested in connection with the hacking to death of a fourth secular blogger here last week, the first arrest in the case that sparked global outrage.
"Two of the suspects are now in our custody... They are Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) members," a police spokesman told PTI of the arrests in connection with Niloy Chakrabarty Neel's murder at his flat here last Friday.
The police spokesman identified the detained suspects as Saad-al-Nahin and Masud Rana and said they were under surveillance as suspected ABT members.
Nahin, nephew of the State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu, was earlier arrested along with three others in April, 2013 for attempting to murder blogger Asif Mohiuddin in January that year. They were later freed on bail, The Daily Star reported.
The arrests came amid criticism of police after Inspector General Shahidul Haque asked the bloggers not to "cross the limit" or write anything which hurts religious beliefs of others.
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also stood by the police chief in urging the bloggers to be cautious but said all steps were being taken to arrest the culprits and "they cannot evade justice".
"Neel wrote nothing which could have hurt anyone in that way... Actually the extremist Islamists are trying to create space for themselves using religion," Neel's friend and fellow blogger Meraj Mohamad said.
He said Neel earlier sought police protection but was advised to leave the country.
Mohamad said 40-year-old Neel later gave a foreign address in his Facebook account in an effort to divert the assassins.
A Dhaka court today placed the duo on an eight-day remand each. Their remand is needed in a bid to recover machetes, stolen goods and to arrest fugitives involved with the killing, said Mahbubur Rahman, inspector of detective branch of police and investigation officer of the case.
