Bangladesh police have arrested the main suspect in the murders of a gay magazine editor and a secular blogger who were brutally killed by militants for writing against radical Islamists in the Muslim majority country.
A joint team of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit and Detective Branch of Police arrested Rashidun Nabi from a bus station in Sayedabad area in the capital last night, a police spokesman said on Monday. Nabi is the main suspect in the murder case of Julhash Mannan, the editor of 'Roopban' - the only magazine in Bangladesh advocating gay rights, and blogger Nazimuddin Samad who were killed in April, the spokesman said.
Police claimed that Nabi is an operative of Ansaral al Islam or Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), which is said to be ideologically inclined to al-Qaeda.
Nabi was today sent on three-day remand by Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Maruf Hossain after police produced him in court with a 10-day remand prayer.