Al Qaeda ‘involved’ in blogger’s murder in Dhaka

Al Qaeda was involved in the killing of a Bangladeshi blogger in Dhaka last month, according to the Detective Branch (DB) police.

The five students of North South University, arrested for killing blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider, were linked to international Islamist militant organisation Al Qaeda and were working under a new-born extremist militant organisation “Ansarullah Bengali Team”.

“The team has been working in Bangladesh through some groups. One of the groups comprising the five students killed Rajib (on February 15),” Nazrul Islam, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch, said.

Quoting the students, Nazrul said: “The other groups attempted to kill bloggers Asif Mahiuddin on January 14 and Saniur Rahman on March 7. The five and the organisation follow Al Qaeda’s ideology.”



DB personnel on March 2 arrested the five students — Faisal bin Nayeem, Maksudul Hassan Anik, Ehsan Reza Rumman, Naim Sikder Irad, and Nafis Imtiaz.

Nazrul said before joining the team, Irad was a pro-Jamaat Islami Chhatra Shibir activist while the rest were motivated into joining it.

He said DB is trying to ascertain how many people and groups are active and arrest them.

The team was active through websites and blogs and various social media including Twitter and Facebook.

The websites comprise videos, audios and writings against democracy and in favour of jihad and even describes how bombs can be made from what is available in kitchens.

One of the groups, Ansar Al-Mujahideen English Forum, in their website on March 2 congratulated the students for killing Rajib and termed them “five lions of Ummah”.

The team’s ideological leader is Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based Al Qaeda leader who was killed in 2011, DB officials said, adding that the team started operations in Bangladesh in 2008 targeting private universities and English medium educational institutions for hiring recruits.



Bangladeshi freed from captivity of pirates

One Bangladeshi, who was a sailor in a Panama registered ship Royal Grace owned by a Dubai businessman, has been released from captivity of Somalian pirates, Bangladesh’s ministry of foreign affairs said yesterday.

According to a ministry statement, “Md Alauddin Wednesday reached the port Salalah of of Oman.”

Alauddin was received by an official of Bangladesh embassy in Muscat, it said.

It is learnt that Alauddin is safe and sound. He spoke with his family members in Chittagong, some 242 southeast of capital Dhaka, said the statement.

It said the Royal Grace and its 22 personnel were hijacked by the Somalian pirates on March 2 last year, Xinhua reported.

Among them 17 were Indian, three Nigerian, one Pakistani and this Bangladeshi national.