A Special Anti-Terrorism tribunal in Bangaldesh pronounced death sentence to the killers of the publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan. Eight members of the banned Ansar al-Islam also known as Ansarullah Bangla Team were sentenced to death for the murder of Faisal Arefin Dipan in October 2015.

Dipan was the publisher of Jagriti Prokashoni which published books by the blogger and science writer Avijit Roy who was also killed by members of the terrorist organisation Ansar al-Islam in Dhaka in February 2015. Avijit Roy was an atheist secular writer and activist who wrote against religious extremism, superstition and orthodoxy.

Two of the convicted persons Ansar al Islam’s top commander Sayed Ziaul Haque and squad leader Hasan Shamim are absconding while the remaining six are in jail. Ziaul Haque was an army major who was sacked in 2012 for plotting to topple the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He later joined Ansar al-Islam.

Calling the killiing of Dipon as premediated, the judge said that the objective of the murder was to destroy the secular and democratic character of the state. The court observed that the murder was committed to silence writers and publishers and create panic among people to stifle free speech.

Dipan’s murder evoked strong outrage inside Bangladesh and outside including the UN and the US Embassy in Dhaka. A series of attacks and murder of bloggers in Bangladesh who wrote against religious extremism took place between 2013-16.