Dhaka: Militant group Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility for the murder of secular online activist Nazim Uddin Samad, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
US-based SITE Intelligence Group yesterday in a statement posted online said, “Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh division of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), claimed credit for the murder of blogger Nazim Uddin Samad in the capital, Dhaka.”
The Daily Star could not independently verify the claim.
Meanwhile, the authorities are trying to find clues to the gruesome murder by scrutinising the writings Nazim had posted on his Facebook page.
Mahbub Alam, deputy commissioner (east) of the Detective Branch of DMP, yesterday said investigators were looking into the Facebook posts of Nazim to see what he wrote about and how people reacted to those.
He added the murder seemed to be carried out by a militant outfit.
Nazim’s friends criticised Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal for his comments on Thursday that the government was looking whether Nazim wrote anything “objectionable” on his blogs.
Secular online writers too are critical of the authorities’ approach towards investigation.
“It appears that if one writes about religion and gets killed, the first priority of the authorities will not be to ensure justice but to evaluate what was written by the person,” said a friend of the victim, requesting anonymity.
Nazim, a law student at Jagannath University, was hacked and shot to death by unidentified assailants on the capital’s Hrishikesh Das Lane on Wednesday night.
Yesterday, he was laid to rest at his family graveyard at Borauta village in Beanibazar upazila of Sylhet.
His family members did not file any case yet.
Nazim’s fellow Jagannath University students held a rally at the city’s Shahbag yesterday. They reiterated their ultimatum to go on strike for an indefinite period from tomorrow unless the killers are identified and arrested by today.
Lucky Akter, president of Bangladesh Chhatra Union, said criminals realised that nothing would happen to them as a culture of impunity prevails in the country.
Imran H Sarker, spokesperson for a faction of Gonojagoron Mancha, said those who raised voice and protested against injustice are being killed one after another.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/ansar-al-islam-claims-responsibility-1206397
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