DHAKA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Detective Branch (DB) of Bangladesh Police have arrested a key member of a banned militant outfit in capital Dhaka.
A DB spokesperson told Xinhua Tuesday Ashfaqur Rahman Ayan is IT chief of the banned Islamist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) blamed for killing and attacking many secular writers and bloggers in the country.
"Ayan was arrested on Monday night from a capital Dhaka area which is very close to the key diplomatic enclave Baridhara," said the DB official.
Last month, death sentences awarded to two Ansarullah militants were upheld over a blogger murder in 2013.
The High Court Division bench had then also ordered life imprisonment to six others including ABT chief Mufti Jashimuddin Rahmani.
A special tribunal in Bangladesh capital Dhaka in December 2015 handed death penalty to two and various jail terms to six others for killing the secular blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in February 2013.
Razib was the first of six bloggers killed in Bangladesh in a series of deadly attacks against writers in the country.
It was not known immediately whether Ayan was involved in any of the killings or attacks.
The DB official says ABT implicated in crimes including some brutal attacks and murders of "atheist bloggers" from 2013 to 2015 and a daring bank heist in April 2015. The gang was outlawed in May 2015 days after the bank robbery in Savar on the outskirts of capital Dhaka.
