Charge framed in blogger Rajib murder case

A Dhaka court on Wednesday framed charges against eight accused in blogger Ahmed Rajeeb Haider murder case.
Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge of Dhaka Md Ruhul Amin passed the order on Wednesday morning and fixed April 21to record the depositions of the witnesses.The indicted accused are Chief of Islamist outfit Ansar Ullah Bangla Team Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmania, North South University students Faisal Bin Nayeem alias Dwip, Maksudul Hasan alias Anik, Mohammad Ehsan Reza alias Rumman, Nayeem Sikder alias Irad, Nafiz Imtiaz, Salman Yasir Mahmud and Redwanul Azad alias Rana. The last accused Rana is on the run while Jasimuddin and six others are in custody. They were produced to the court on the occasion.
The Detective Branch (DB) of Police submitted the charge sheet of the case against the accusesd on January 28 last year.
Rajeeb, known as Thaba Baba in the blogging community, was hacked to death on February 15, 2013 near his Pallabi residence, 10 days after the movement at Shahbagh begun demanding the death penalty for the 1971 war criminals and a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and its student body Islami Chhatra Shibir.
Rajeeb was also an active member of the Shahbagh movement, and was vocal on Facebook and blogged against Jamaat-Shibir and their institutions, including Islami Bank.
A day after the murder, the victim’s father Nazim Uddin filed the murder case with Pallabi Police Station of the city.
After two weeks of filing the case, police arrested the five NSU students in connection with the murder. However, none of them witnessed the killing directly, the Investigation Officer said in his report. Mufti Jasim, also known as the chief of Markajul Ulum al Islami was arrested from Mohammadpur of the capital with 30 of his followers at his house in Barguna on Agust 12 last year.
The charge sheet says Mufti Jasim as the ‘instigator’ while fugitive Rana, as the ‘planner’ of the murder. After arrest on August 11, 2013, Jasim allegedly confessed to a court that the instigated by his sermons might have killed Rajib. The arrested NSU students also reportedly confessed that they had killed Rajib following the directives of the chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team, a Bangladeshi followe of Al-Qaeda. – Court Correspondent