Staff Reporter : The main accused in blogger Avijit Roy murder case was killed in an encounter with members of Detective Branch (DB) of Police in city’s Khilgaon area early Sunday.Shariful Islam Sharif alias Hadi was a top leader of the military wing of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). Earlier on May 19, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) released photographs and identities of six suspected militants, including Sharif, involved in the spate of target killings recently. It also announced bounties of Tk 5 lakh for information leading to arrest of Shariful and Selim and Tk 2 lakh for the other four.According police, Sharif also used to identify himself as Saleh and Arif.Talking to journalists, Masudur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner of DMP, said acting on a tip-off a special squad of plainclothes police arrested Shihab alias Sumon alias Sakib alias Saifullah, also a member of ABT on Thursday.He was arrested in connection with a case for the attempt on the life of Shuddhashwar publisher and blogger Ahmedur Rashid Tutul on October 31 last year. “After extracted information from Shihab during his interrogation, DB set up a check post in Meradiya Bashpotti area under Khilgaon Police Station,” Masudur Rahman said.He said, riding a motorbike when Sharif along with his two other accomplices were passing by the check post in Meradiya Bashpotti area at about 2:30am, the on duty law enforces asked them to halt. “But the three, including Sharif, instead of responding to the law enforces’ instruction, opened fire targeting the members of plainclothes police,” he said.Masudur Rahman said DB Police also fired several rounds of bullet targeting them. During the gunfight Sharif received bullet wounds and two other managed to flee the scene. Sharif was later rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead, the police official said.A motorcycle, a pistol and two rounds of bullet were recovered from the spot. Avijit Roy, son of Prof Ajoy Roy and founder of Mukta-Mona blog, was killed and his wife Rafida Afrin Banya injured as unidentified criminals stabbed them near TSC on the Dhaka University campus on February 26, 2015.Prof Ajay Roy, father of the deceased and a former DU teacher, filed the case against some unnamed people with Shahbagh Police Station on February 27.Avijit along with his wife, an expatriate couple living in the USA, returned home a few days ahead of the incident as his two books were published on the occasion of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair.On the last day of October 2015, two publishers — Ahmedur Rashid Tutul and Faisal Arefin Dipan — were hacked brutally by some unidentified people.Later, Faisal Arefin Dipan, owner of Jagriti Publications, died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. But, Ahmedur Rashid Tutul survived with terrible scars across his face.Meanwhile, a series of such crossfire killings in recent weeks has raised alarm and raised questions about the motive for such actions. The suspected militants and accused in different murder cases are being killed in so-called ‘gunfights’ and ‘crossfire’ with the law enforcement agencies, especially with police, DB Police and Rapid Action Battalion.The two recent deaths in so-called ‘encounter’ have already raised serious questions among the people. These deaths have also put the role of the police and the whole criminal system on the dock. The first instance is the death in an ‘encounter’ of a youth militant, Golam Faizullah Fahim. He was caught red-handed during a machete attack on a Hindu teacher in Madaripur. One day after the police took him on a ten-day remand and he was dead.At least five or six accused in different murder cases were reported to have been killed in last seven days.Some police officials and detectives said that the accused slain in reported encounters were identified militants and ‘notorious gangsters’ who could not have been contained by legal process.But rights activists strongly opposed the views. They termed such extrajudicial killings alarming and violation of law by the law enforcement agencies. They suspect that law enforcement agencies might be trying to derail investigation of the sensational cases.
