B'desh arrests main suspect in secular blogger murder case

Bangladesh police have arrested the main suspect in the murder case of a law student and secular blogger who was killed by militants after he posted comments against radical Islamists on Facebook in the Muslim majority country.
A joint team of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit and Detective Branch of Police held Rashidun Nabi from Sayedabad in the capital last night in connection with the murder of blogger Nazimuddin Samad, who was hacked by machete-wielding militants before being shot dead in April, Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Masudur Rahman said today.
Counter-terrorism officers said Nabi was held at a bus station in the capital Dhaka, alleging he was the ringleader in Nazimuddin killing, local media reported.

Nabi was today sent on three-day remand by Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Maruf Hossain after police produced him in court with a 10-day remand prayer.
Nazimuddin, 28, a masters student of the state-run Jagannath University's law department, had been on a hit list of 84 atheist bloggers that a group of radical Islamists prepared and sent to Bangladesh's interior ministry.
A day before the murder, Nazimuddin had expressed concerns over the country's law and order in a Facebook post.

He was known to have been critical of state religion in the Bangladeshi constitution.
Nazimuddin was the information and research secretary of Sylhet district unit of Bangabandhu Jatiya Jubo Parishad. He was also an activist of Gonojagoron Moncho's Sylhet wing.

Bangladesh has seen a spate of gruesome attacks on secular activists, religious minorities, bloggers and foreigners, many of whom have been hacked to death with machetes.