Nazim Murder: Leader of killing team detained

Police claim to have arrested the chief of a five-member militant team that hacked and shot dead online activist Nazim Uddin Samad in April.

Rashidun Nabi Bhuiyan, an operative of militant outfit Ansar Al Islam, was picked up in the capital's Sayedabad bus stand area around 11:35pm on Sunday, police say.

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“He led the operation and himself hacked Nazim,” Monirul Islam, counterterrorism chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), told reporters yesterday.

All five attackers carried machetes and one of them had a firearm. The team fled firing several shots after the attack as people were approaching the scene, Monirul added.

In autopsy, it was found that Nazim was shot on the left side of his head from close range. The bullet pierced his skull.

Speaking at a press briefing at the DMP Media Centre, Monirul said Nazim was targeted for his write-ups in the social media.

A student of Jagannath University, Nazim used to criticise religious bigotry in his Facebook posts.

“In their [militants'] views, Nazim was an atheist and they had targeted him three months before the attack,” Monirul said.

The official told The Daily Star that same militant group was involved in the killing of LGBT activist Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Tonoy. “In one sitting, the murders were fixed as their action for the month of April.”

Nazim was killed on Hrishikesh Das Lane on April 6. And Xulhaz and Tonoy were stabbed to death at the former's Kalabagan house on April 25.

According to police, Rashidun was among the militants who made the decision of the murders. He joined the outfit in 2015 during his final year at the Department of English in Comilla Victoria College.

Hailing from Nangalkot in Comilla, he passed SSC examinations from a school in Chittagong and HSC from a college in his upazila.

Police say he used to carry out militant activities under aliases -- Tipu, Russell, Rafique and Raihan.

Rashidun's Father Abdul Bari Bhuiyan, a joint convener of ward-1 of Nangalkot Municipality Awami League, claimed that his son is innocent.

Rashidun is religious and performs prayers five times a day and he is not involved in any subversive activities, said Abdul Bari.

“If investigators find him involved in any crime, he must be punished,” he said, adding that some plainclothes officials picked up Rashidun from their house on May 19.

Rashidun's uncle Sadek Hossain Bhuiyan, also principal of Nangalkot Hasan Memorial Degree College, said they had tried to file a general diary after that but Nangalkot Police station “refused to record it”.

Md Ayub, officer-in-charge of the police station, said he joined the police station after May 19. But, he said, there is no reason not to register a GD.

At the press briefing, Monirul said the militants swooped on Nazim on the street instead of attacking him at his mess as his roommates were there, he added.

Days before the attack, they rented a house near the university and followed Nazim's movement, said the official.

Police claim Rashidun admitted his role in the killing of Nazim and provided police with the organisational names of his four accomplices.

He also gave information about the Kalabagan double murder and a murder attempt on publisher Ahmedur Rashid Tutul and two others.

The police said Nazim was in fear of an attack on him.

A Facebook conversation between Nazim and one Azharul Islam on March 31 last year shows the latter expressing his worries about Nazim. “I am concerned about your safety. Be a little cautious. You know what is happening around…”

In response, Nazim said, “I am also scared… scared of an untimely death. But what can I do, sir? Perhaps it is better to die than to live with your head down.” He posted a smiley at the end of his message.

Nazim's grisly murder sparked widespread condemnation from both local and international rights bodies.

Since February 2013, five secular online activists and a publisher were hacked to death with sharp weapons in a similar fashion.