
The Detective Branch (DB) of Police, the agency responsible for investigating Bangladeshi-born US citizen and writer-blogger Avijit Roy murder, has prepared a list of 50 people for their suspected links to the gruesome killing.
Unknown assailants hacked Avijit Roy to death and seriously injured his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya on Dhaka University campus on the night of February 26.
Meanwhile, the visiting Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team is suspecting that extremist group was involved in the killing of Avijit for his write-ups, Monirul Islam, Joint Commissioner of DB police, told a press briefing at the DMP media centre on Sunday.
Investigators are now planning to arrest 10 more people in connection with the murder of Avijit, who had threatened the writer-blogger on the social media. Police suspect involvement of extremist elements in the killing.
At least 50 people took part of the killing mission. Most of the people, in the guise of common visitors, had been following Avijit Roy at Bangla Academy prior to the murder on the day, investigators told The Daily Observer on Sunday.
"We've been interrogating Farabi but his involvement in the gruesome murder has not been found yet," said Monirul Islam.
"The list was created after examining the facebook accounts of Farabi and Avijit and as per the statement of Farabi. The FBI team will assist us in identifying the listed suspects," he added.
Monirul Islam, said the FBI team held several meetings with the detectives and also talked to Avijit's father Ajay Roy and the CID.
The FBI team visited the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) office in the city as part of their assistance in
investigating the murder of blogger-writer Avijit Roy. The team expressed satisfaction over the progress of the investigation conducted by the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, he added.
Earlier, the FBI members went to the DB office and stayed for 10 minutes. They were also set to visit Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Meanwhile, DB on Sunday seized a laptop and a CPU of a desktop computer from the house of Shafiur Rahman Farabi, the main suspect in blogger Avijit murder, in Sylhet.
Detectives in association with Sylhet Kotwali Thana police raided Farabi's rented flat in Munshipara area at about 12:30pm. They recovered a laptop, a CPU and some documents from the house where Farabi's mother and sister were staying.
However, no one was present in the house during the police raid, said M Rahmatullah, Additional Deputy Commissioner (media) of Police in Sylhet.
Farabi was arrested from Jatrabari in the capital on March 2 in connection with Avijit murder.
Four US investigators visited the murder scene on Friday. "They haven't recommended arresting anyone yet," Munirul Islam said, adding police would arrest suspects based on FBI's suggestion. He said they had spoken to the FBI investigators about the murder.