DHAKA, Bangladesh — A court in Bangladesh’s capital has indicted eight suspected Islamist militants tied to a banned group over the 2015 killing of a man who published books on secularism and atheism.
Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal Judge Majibur Rahman read out the charges to six of the suspects on Sunday while they pleaded not guilty. Another two, including a sacked military official, remained fugitives, but the judge issued arrest warrants for them. Police say they belong to the domestic militant outfit Ansar al Islam.
In October 2015, suspected militants hacked Faisal Abedin Deepan of the Jagriti Prokashoni publishing house. He was a publisher of Bangladeshi-American writer and blogger Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death in February 2015.
Several other atheists and bloggers were killed by suspected militants in 2015.
The Associated Press
