Three arrested for Bangladesh blogger murders

Three people have been arrested in Bangladesh in connection with the murders of secularist bloggers Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das, police said on Tuesday.

Those arrested were identified as Touhidul Rahman, the mastermind and a financier of the Ansarullah Bangla Team militant group, and its active members Sadek Ali and Aminul Mollik, The Bangladesh Daily Star reported.

They were arrested on Monday night from Dhaka's Dhanmondi and Nilkhet areas, a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) spokesperson said.

According to reports, Rahman is believed to be a British citizen.

Unidentified assailants killed writer and blogger Avijit Roy and badly injured his wife Rafida Ahmed Banna on the Dhaka University campus in February.

Two attackers hit Avijit, 42, with machetes from behind, inflicting fatal injuries to his head.

Blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was killed in Sylhet in May.

Last week, the police arrested two other suspected members of the militant group over the August 7 killing of blogger Niloy Chatterjee.

In March, another blogger, Washiqur Rahman, was hacked to death in Dhaka.