The killing took place a month after a prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger known for speaking out against religious extremism was hacked to death in the city.
Two suspects, both students at Islamic schools, were captured and three meat cleavers were recovered, police official Biplob Kumar Sarker said.
The third suspect fled, he said.
One of the suspects told reporters they attacked Mr Babu because he had disrespected Islam's Prophet Mohammad.
"I stabbed him because he humiliated my prophet," said Jikrullah, a 20-year-old student at Hathajari Madrassah in the south-eastern district of Chittagong, without elaborating.
Jikrullah said he travelled from Chittagong and stayed overnight at a mosque to attack Mr Babu.
The other detained suspect, Ariful Islam, also 20, is a student at an Islamic school in Dhaka's Mirpur area.
They named a third suspect, but details about him were not available.
It was not immediately known what kind of blogging Mr Babu did, but the suspects told police they targeted him for anti-Islamic writings, Mr Sarker said.
The deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general, Farhan Haq, expressed concern at the latest death.
"We have been calling for the respect of basic rights in Bangladesh, including the right to freedom of expression," he said.
"It's a matter of tremendous concern that journalists and other intellectuals have been attacked."
Two of Mr Babu's cousins told reporters at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where his body was being kept, that he recently joined a travel agency in Dhaka after finishing his studies, and they were not aware of any blogging he had done.
Local media reported that Mr Babu had a Facebook page that contained the line "IamAvijit," meaning he was a follower of Avijit Roy, the Bangladeshi-American blogger who was hacked to death late last month.
No comments:
Post a Comment