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NEW DELHI (AP) — Bangladeshi police arrested a leading suspect in last year's killing of a publisher as part of a crackdown on radicals blamed for violent attacks on foreigners, liberals and minorities, an official said Wednesday.
Moinul Islam Shamim was arrested late Tuesday from Tongi area just outside the Bangladesh capital, said Monirul Islam, head of the police counterterrorism and transnational crimes unit. Shamim is a key organizer of the banned group Ansarullah Bangla Team, which is blamed for attacks on atheist bloggers and online activists.
He is suspected of killing publisher Arefin Deepan on Oct. 31 in his office in Dhaka. A similar attack on the same day left another publisher, Ahmed Rashid Tutul, and his two friends seriously injured.
Shamim, who also uses alias of Sifat, Samir or Imran, is believed to be one of the top four coordinators of the group with knowledge of making bombs, police said.
Police also announced the names of five others allegedly involved in the killings of at least 10 people in recent years.
Deepen and Tutul had published works by Bangladeshi-American blogger and writer Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death in February 2015 while walking with his wife on the Dhaka University campus near an annual book fair premises. The Ansarullah Bangla Team claimed responsibility for the killing. Police have arrested five people in connection with Roy's killing.
The Islamic State group also has claimed responsibility for several attacks since last year, but Bangladesh's government has repeatedly dismissed the idea that the extremist Sunni group has any presence in the country. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has instead blamed domestic groups for the attacks.
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This story has been corrected to show that Deepan is only Bangadeshi national and not dual American citizen.
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