Government arrests 3 Islamists over killings of secular bloggers

August 18, 2015 10:05 AM

In February, machete-wielding assailants killed a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin and critic of religious militancy, Avijit Roy, and seriously injured his wife and fellow blogger, Rafida Bonya Ahmed.

Bangladesh arrests 3 Islamists over killings of secular bloggers

Bangladesh's elite forces said on Tuesday they had arrested three suspected Islamist militants, including a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin, for masterminding the killings of two secular bloggers in the Muslim-majority nation.

Touhidur Rahman, 58, and two active members of outlawed Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team were arrested in Dhaka on Monday night, said Maksudul Alam, a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force.

"Rahman is a Bangladeshi origin British citizen and we suspect he is the main planner of the killings of U.S. blogger Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das," he told Reuters.

Another secular blogger, Ananta Bijoy Das, was hacked to death on May 12.

Militants have targeted secularist writers in Bangladesh in recent years, while the government has tried to crack down on hardline Islamist groups seeking to make the South Asian nation of 160 million people a sharia-based state.