Avijit Murder: Axed Major Zia directly involved, says Monirul

A suspected coordinator of Ansar-Al-Islam, sacked Major Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque, was directly involved with the murder of blogger and writer Avijit Roy.

Chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC) Monirul Islam revealed it to reporters on Sunday at the DMP media centre..

Sacked Major Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque, better known as Major Zia, was directly involved in the blogger killing as he was present on the spot during the murder, he said.

"Though Zia has been absconding, we've got enough evidence to continue the trial process in the Avijit killing case," the CTTC chief said.

Detective Branch (DB) of the DMP was investigating the murder case. The CTTC got the charge to investigate the case three months ago, the CTTC chief said, reports UNB.

He said earlier DB police, Rapid Action Battalion and other law enforcement agencies arrested seven suspected killers. One of the suspected killers named Mukul Rana was killed during a shootout with the detectives.

Monirul said the CTTC arrested three suspects-Mozammel Hossain Saimon, Arafat alias Shams alias Sajjat and Abu Siddique alias Sohel--, who have already gave their confessional statements about their involvement in the killing before a magistrate of a Dhaka court. Besides, they revealed that three of the arrested suspects out of seven were not involved in the killing.

A bounty of Tk two million was announced by police on August 2 in 2016 for the discharged army man Zia's arrest.