Bangladesh has banned an Islamist militant out fit Ansarullah Bangla Team that is believed to be behind the gruesome hacking deaths of three secular bloggers in recent months. Earlier this month, machete-wielding masked men hacked to death 33-year-old Ananta Bijoy Das, a secular blogger, in Sylhet city.
Assailants in February had killed 45-year old Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi-born US national, in Dhaka while his wife narrowly escaped the attack. A month after Roy’s killing, another blogger Washiqur Rahman was murdered in similar fashion in Dhaka. Police has so far arrested several activists of Ansarullah Bangla Team, ABT in connection with the murders. The killings have evoked outrage in the country and across the globe.
Investigators earlier said they suspected that the outfit was closely linked to al-Qaeda. An order by the Home ministry issued in Dhaka yesterday said the government has banned the ATB for its militant and anti-state activities. State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told reporters in Dhaka that ATB is the sixth organisation to be outlawed for militant activities in Bangladesh. The other five outfits are Hizbut-Tahrir, Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkatul Jihad Bangladesh (Huji), Jagrata Muslim Janata of Bangladesh and Shahadat-e Al-Hikma.
