'Shibir man behind blogger killing'

5 NSU students held over the murder

 

Detective Branch of police produce five students of North South University over Rajib murder case in a press briefing at the media centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Saturday. Photo: STARStar Online Report

'Shibir man behind blogger killing'
5 NSU students held over the murderAn Islami Chhatra Shibir activist orchestrated the killing of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haidar, detectives on Saturday quoted five students of North South University (NSU).
The five students confessed to their involvement in the killing, Monirul Islam, a joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), told reporters at a press briefing Saturday.

The five, all aged between 19 and 23 years, were arrested during raids in different parts of the capital Friday night, the DMP official said.
The mastermind, whom the NSU students referred to as Borobhai or elder brother, and another one who took part in the killing mission are absconding, he added.
Referring to information gleaned during primary interrogation of the five, detectives said the decision to kill Haidar was taken one and a half months ago.
Split in to two groups—intelligence and execution, at least six, including the five NSU students, accomplished the killing mission on February 15, DB police said.
The revelations came during a press briefing at DMP media centre Saturday morning, three days into Home Minister MK Alamgir’s claim that seven had been arrested in connection with the murder.
The five were produced at the briefing. But journalists were not allowed to talk with the arrestees.
IDENTITIES
Detectives identified the five as Faisal bin Nayeem alias Dwip, 22, Maksudul Hassan Anik, 23, Ehsan Reza Rumman, 23, Naim Sikder Irad, 19, and Nafis Imtiaz, 22.
Dwip and Anik, who hail from Matuail and Keraniganj in Dhaka, are students of Electrical and Electronic Engineering department of NSU while Rumman and Irad, who are from Jhenidah and Brahmanbaria, are students of Electric and Telecommunication department.
Niaz, who hails from Sandwip, is a student of Business Administration.
Saying that all the five are from well-off families, detectives said fathers of Anik, Rumman and Nafis are businessmen.
Dwip’s father works as executive engineer at Chittagong LGED while Irad’s father lives in Dubai.
According to DB police, the five came to know each other at the varsity prayer room and became friends. They later started to meet and share their ideas through Internet.
Law enforcers have found posts related with Shibir on their Facebook pages, Nazrul Islam Mollah, deputy commissioner of DB (North), told The Daily Star.
“But we haven’t yet found their direct political involvement.”
THE PLOT
The “Borobhai” gave the NSU students addresses of some blogs and asked them to collect information about the writers.
Analysing the posts, the group decided to teach Haidar, who used to write under the name “Thaba Baba” a good lesson, Monirul Islam, a DMP joint commissioner, told newsmen quoting the arrestees.
Once the decision to kill Haidar taken, an “intel group” was formed to collect detailed information about the blogger analysing his posts on blogs and Facebook, and track him down.
The “execution group” consisted of three members.
THE KILLING
After collecting all necessary information about “Thaba Baba”, the intel group hit the road to identify him physically on February 9, Monirul Islam said.
Within the next couple of days, the group identified Haidar through his friends.
On February 11, Rumman followed Haidar from Shahbagh Projonmo Chattar to Mirpur-10 intersection. “Rajib was in a bus and the Shibir man followed him by a bicycle,” said the police official.
He failed to find out Haidar’s house that day.
The next day, he succeeded to identify his home at Palashnagar.
“The group later started to collect information from the locals regarding Haidar’s profession, lifestyle, relatives etc to finalise their killing plan,” said Monirul.
Later, Anik and 2/3 others went to Notun Bazar and bought machetes and knives. Anik paid the money, the arrestees divulged.
On the day of killing, February 15, the group came to know from Haidar’s Facebook page that he would not go to Shahbagh that day and rushed hurriedly to Palashnagar by bicycles and bus, said Monirul Islam.
At around 4:00pm, they reached there, carrying the machetes and knives in schoolbags.
The group started to play cricket in an alley near the blogger’s house to keep watch when he returned.
As the sun was going down, Haidar was seen returning home.
As he neared the gate of his house, Dwip hit Haidar with a machete in a bid to sever his head from the shoulder, but failed to succeed in doing so.
After two more hits, the victim fell on the wall and Dwip continued to chop him, said Monirul.
Anik joined Dwip this time and started to stab Haidar with a knife.
As Dwip continued stabbing indiscriminately, he hit Anik in the big toe of his leg.
Ensuring Haidar was dead, the killers fled the area.
AFTER THE KILLING
While fleeing the area accomplishing their mission, the killers left a machete near a tea stall at Palashnagar, said the DMP official.
Hurt in his leg, Anik went to Kakrail area and threw away his sneakers in front of Department of Films and Publications office there.
ARREST
After several raids in Kakrail, Khilgaon, Baridhara, Bashundhara and Panthapath areas, detectives succeeded to arrest Anik.
Acting on information gleaned from him, they later netted the rest four from the capital.
According to Monirul Islam, police recovered Anik’s sneakers from Kakrail and some more machetes in a sewage line beside Shere-Bangla Nagar acting on the confession of the arrestees.
The law enforcers recovered total six machetes, one bicycle, a laptop, a bag and eight mobile phone sets from the possession of the arrestees, he added.
ALMOST PROFESSIONAL
Like professional killers, the group chalked out the plan and executed it, Monirul Islam said.
“From his description, you can visualise Dwip as a skilled carpenter cutting woods.”
“On the pretext of playing cricket, they threw the ball inside Haidar’s house and had a view of the inner side,” he added.
Before the February 15 mission, the group made an attempt to kill Haidar but did not find him in a suitable location, said Monirul.
“Three of them told us that they are not repentant for what they have done. They said it was their religious obligation to kill Rajib.”