Man Arrested in Murder of Blogger Hacked to Death

Farabi Shafiur Rahman has admitted to threats against Avijit Roy
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 2, 2015 10:31 AM CST
Man Arrested in Murder of Blogger Hacked to Death
Members of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion force escort Farabi Shafiur Rahman, center, a suspect in the murder of Avijit Roy, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, March 2, 2015.   (AP Photo/Suvra Kanti Das)

The top suspect in the brutal killing of a Bangladeshi-American blogger has been apprehended, Reuters reports. Farabi Shafiur Rahman, who was arrested at a bus stop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has confessed to threatening blogger Avijit Roy, officials say. "It's a holy duty of Bangalee Muslims to kill Avijit," he wrote on Facebook last year, according to police. Farabi was jailed in the past in connection with an Islamic extremist organization; Roy battled extremism in his writings. Farabi was also arrested last year over social media comments backing another blogger's death, though he was released in that case. That blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, was similarly hacked to death, CNN reports. (More arrest stories.)

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