Bangladeshi court indicts 8 militants of Ansar al Islam

A Bangladeshi court on Sunday indicted eight members of a banned militant outfit for allegedly killing a publisher of books on secularism and atheism in 2015, according to a media report.

Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal Judge Majibur Rahman read out the charges to the six accused -- Moinul Hasan Shamim, 24, Abdus Sabur, 23, Khairul Islam, 24, Sheikh Abdullah, 27, Abu Siddiq Sohel, 34, and Mozammel Hossain, 25. All of them are currently in jail, reported the Daily Star.

The accused militants are members of banned militant outfit Ansar Al Islam.

The court also issued arrest warrants against two fugitives -- Major Zia ul Haque and Akram, according to the report.

Faisal Arefin Dipan, 43, the publisher of Jagriti Prokashani, was hacked to death in Dhaka's Shahbagh neighbourhood in October 2015.

Dipan had been stabbed twice on the face and once on the neck, the coroner's report had said. Dipan's wife had filed a case with Shahbagh Police.

Dipan was a publisher of Bangladeshi-American writer and blogger Avijit Roy. He was working on books on secularism and atheism.

Several other atheists and bloggers were killed by suspected militants in 2015.