Four of the five convicts who received capital punishment are Md Mozzammel Hussain alias Saimon alias Shahriar, Md Abu Siddiq Sohel alias Sakib alias Sajid alias Shahab, Md Arafat Rahman and Akram Hossain alias Abir. The Islamist militants hacked to death Avijit, the US-based Bangladeshi science writer and founder of the Muktomona blog, on Feb 26, 2015 just after he left the Amar Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka. On Feb 10, the court sentenced to death eight militants, including Ziaul, Saimon, Siddiq and Akram in a case over the murder of Avijit’s publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, who was hacked to death at his office in a similar attack months after the killing of Avijit. The son of noted physicist Ajay Roy, Avijit had come to Bangladesh to take part in the book fair, where two of his books were published in 2015, despite threats from militants. After Prof Roy’s death in December 2019, his wife died last year.

Source: bd News24 February 16, 2021 06:33 UTC