Sacked major Zia ordered blogger killings: DMP

Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Saturday claimed that all the killings of bloggers in the country were ordered by sacked army major Syed Ziaul Haque, also known as major Zia, absconding leader of military wing of extremist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team.
Joint commissioner (Detective Branch) Abdul Baten said this as he briefed media at metropolitan police media centre about the arrest of outfit suspect Khairul Islam alias Jamil alias Rifat alias Fahim alias Jisan, 24, also a suspect in the murders of Jagriti Prokashoni owner Faisal Arefin Dipon and blogger Niladri Chatarjee, better known as Niloy.
Police announced a bounty of Tk 20 lakh over Zia.
Baten said that each of the blogger killings was ordered by Zia who used to distribute killing tasks among members of the outfit.
Zia was allegedly involved in a failed army coup in December 2011 and went into hiding. He was later sacked from the army. 
Baten said that they arrested Khairul at Kamalapur rail station Friday night on suspicion of his involvement in the killings of Faisal and Niladri.
During primary interrogation, Khairul confessed that he was a top level member of the outfit’s intelligence wing and used to claim responsibility after killings by their team members and he joined the outfit intelligence wing in 2014, Baten said.
He said that Khairul informed police that he was introduced with a ‘big brother’ major Zia in 2013, joined the outfit and used to follow internet and scrutinise information.
He said that Khairul used to provide information about the probable targets and later, based on his information, the ‘big brother’ used to fix targets. 
Baten said that Khairul informed them that the killings of Faisal and 
Niladri were ordered by Zia.
Khairul confessed that he collected information about the Faislam and Niladri from January 2015 to August 2015 and provided the information about the targets’ houses, offices and their ways to his organisation’s military wing.
On August 7, 2015, blogger Niladri was hacked to death at his house at Goran in Dhaka. Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent had claimed responsibility for the killing.
On October 31, 2015, Faisal was hacked to death at his office at Aziz Super Market at Shahbagh in Dhaka. Ansarullah Bangla Team had claimed responsibility for the murder.

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