Bangladeshi Blogger Rajib murder: Death for 2 confirmed
The High Court today
confirmed death for two people and different terms in jail for six others for
killing blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.
Rana, who is also the
main suspect in the murder of writer-blogger Avijit Roy, is absconding.
Blogger Rajib, who was
an activist of Shahbagh movement and used to write against Jamaat-Shibir and
war criminals on different blogs under the pseudonym Thaba Baba, was hacked to
death near his Mirpur house in the capital on February 15, 2013.
On December 31, 2015, a
Dhaka court handed down death penalty to the duo while sentencing
for different terms in jail to the six people including chief of banned
militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), for killing Rajib. Among the jailed
convicts, ABT chief Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, 45, was awarded to five years in
jail as he was found guilty of provoking Rajib's murder through his sermons. Five other convicts --
Maksudul Hasan alias Anik, Ehsan Reza Rumman, Nafis Imtiaz, Nayem Sikdar Irad
and Sadman Yasir Mahmud -- were also students of a private university in 2013.
The convicts except
Rana have filed separate appeals with the HC, challenging their sentences
awarded by the trial court. While passing the
order the court said there is no scope to reduce the sentences of the convicts
in this case as the Rajib killing incident is so horrendous. The HC bench of
Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Md. Jahangir Hossain came up with the
verdict after hearing the death reference and appeals filed by the
convicts.
