Bangladesh minister blames pro-BNP forces, those linked with Jamaat-e-Islami for murder of bloggers

NEW DELHI: A senior Bangladesh Minister and ruling Awami League leader has blamed pro-BNP forces as well as those linked with Jamaat-e-Islami for recent murder of bloggers with an eye on creating unrest in the country, close on the heels of arrest of few perpetrators.

Bangladesh Health Minister Mohd Nasim, who is also member of Awami League presidium (party's highest decision making body) told ET that "Jamaat-e-Islami-aided extremists want to create unrest in the country" through these attacks on secular and pro-democracy forces. Nasim was here to attend an international medical conference.

He claimed that the "killers of 1971 and anti-liberation forces have started conspiring the day Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina decided to try war criminals."

Nasim said those arrested in connection with bloggers' murders "have confessed to security agencies that they were being funded by people who belong to BNP-gharana." Three lawyers associated with funding of perpetrators have been arrested and their confession could reveal the conspiracy.

"Those who know that they would be affected by the ongoing war crimes trial and anti-liberation forces in and outside Bangladesh are behind bloggers' killing," said Nasim without mincing any word.

Dhaka Metropolitan police officer Mahbub Alam said two men — Kausar Hossain Khan, 29, and Kamal Hossain Sardar, 29, — were arrested late Thursday for the killing of Niladri Chottopadhay Niloy, who was hacked to death on August 7 in Dhaka.

The Criminal Investigation Department arrested two brothers in connection with the killing of blogger Ananta Bijoy Das last May in northeastern Bangladesh, said Special Superintendent Mirza Abdullahel Baqui.