Verdict in blogger Oyasiqur murder case on 27 Oct
Three men with knives and meat cleavers hacked Oyasiqur to death just outside his house as he headed to work
A Dhaka court has set 27 October for announcing the judgment in a case filed against five militants over the blogger Oyasiqur Rahman Babu murder in 2015.
Judge Md Rabiul Alam of Dhaka Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court fixed the date against the members of banned militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team on completion of arguments from the state and the accused on Sunday.
Additional Public Prosecutor Md Salauddin Hawlader, who presented arguments on behalf of the state, confirmed the news.
On 30 March 2015, three men with knives and meat cleavers hacked Oyasiqur to death just outside his house as he headed to work at a travel agency.
According to the case statement, the blogger was killed early on 30 March 2015 at Deepika's Dhal in Tejgaon's Begunbari area.
Soon after the incident, the crowd handed over two madrasa students – Zikrullah and Ariful Islam – to the police.
Three meat cleavers, used in the murder, were confiscated from them during the arrest.
Zikrullah and Ariful admitted that they killed Oyasiqur for his anti-Islamic write-ups on social media including Facebook and in blogs.
Oyasiqur's brother-in-law Monir Hossain filed a murder case at Tejgaon police station that night, against four people, including Zikrullah and Ariful, and accused several others as well.
Zikrullah and Ariful were later shown arrested in the case.
On 1 September 2015, the Detective Branch of Police filed a charge sheet against five members of Ansarullah Bangla Team – Zikrullah, Ariful, Saiful Islam, Hasib Abdullah and Abu Taher Junaid.
On 2 September 2015, Detective Branch Inspector Moshiur Rahman, the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet against the five accused to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka.
Dhaka's Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge SM Ziaur Rahman indicted the accused on 20 July 2016.
However, Hasib and Junayed are on the run now.
The recording of testimony of the witnesses ended on 25 August. Twenty four of the 40 witnesses in the case testified during the trial.