Bangladesh: Militant involved in attack on Hindu lecturer arrested

Khaled Saifullah masterminded an attempt to murder Ripon Chakrabarty.

Dhaka: An Islamist militant, believed to be the masterminded of a failed assassination attempt on a Hindu lecturer in southwestern Bangladesh, has been arrested from the national capital, police said on Friday.

Khaled Saifullah, who masterminded an attempt to murder Ripon Chakrabarty, a Mathematics lecturer at the Nazimuddin Government University College in Madaripur, was arrested by police's counter-terrorism unit from Dhaka's Demra last night, Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman was quoted as saying by the Bdnews24.Com.

Three Islamists had hacked Chakrabarty at his home with sharp weapons on June 15 in an attempt to kill him. The assailants first knocked at his door and tried to chop his head off when he opened it, police said.

Local people had caught one of the attackers, Golam Faizullah Fahim, who was involved with the banned militant group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

17-year-old Fahim was taken to an area on the outskirts of the district town by police later where he was killed in a shootout.

The surprise shootout came a day after police secured a court order to interrogate Fahim in custody in connection with the murder attempt on Chakraborty.

Bangladesh in recent months witnessed a series of deadly clandestine attacks on religious minorities and secular and liberal activists. The machete-wielding militants fled the scenes after carrying out the murders.

But Fahim, a student of a college in Dhaka, was the lone assailant to be grabbed by people in the neighbourhood though two other attackers had fled the scene after the attack.