Bangladesh police arrest militant suspected of killing blogger Avijit Roy

Avijit Roy was hacked to death by machete-wielding attackers in February 2015 while returning home with his wife from a Dhaka book fair.

Bangladeshi counter-terrorism police said on Monday they had arrested an Islamist militant wanted for the 2015 killing of a US blogger critical of religious extremism.

Bangladeshi activists hold the photos of activists, writers and bloggers ((L-R) Humayun Azad, Avijit Roy, Faisal Arefin Dipan, Nazimuddin Samad) who were murdered by unidentified assassins in the last few years, in Dhaka on June 15, 2016. (AFP File Photo)

The militant, identified as Abu Siddiq Sohel, 34, a member of the al Qaeda-inspired militant group Ansar Ullah Bangla Team, is suspected of taking part in the killing of writer Avijit Roy, deputy police commissioner Masudur Rahman said.

Roy, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was hacked to death by machete-wielding attackers in February 2015 while returning home with his wife from a Dhaka book fair. Roy’s widow, Rafida Ahmed, was maimed in the attack.

Sohel, who was identified after analysing CCTV footage, was arrested in the capital, Dhaka, on Sunday night, Rahman told Reuters.

Bangladesh, a deeply religious but moderate Muslim-majority country of 160 million people, is struggling to control attacks by Islamist groups on secular bloggers, atheists, foreigners and religious minorities.

Al Qaeda and Islamic State have also claimed responsibility for a series of killings over the past few years, including Roy’s.

Authorities have consistently ruled out the presence of such groups, blaming domestic militants instead. However, security experts say the scale and sophistication of the restaurant attack suggested links to a wider network.