Bangladesh students held for murder of anti-Islam blogger

DHAKA: Bangladesh police arrested five students of an elite private university on Saturday on charges of murdering an anti-Islamist blogger whose death triggered nationwide turmoil.

The students allegedly confessed to hacking to death Ahmed Rajib Haider, 35, on February 15 after he helped organise protests against leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party on trial for war crimes, police said.

"They targeted him because of his allegedly blasphemous writings against Islam and the Prophet Mohammad (SAWW)," Dhaka police deputy commissioner Masudur Rahman told.

All five of the young men arrested are students of the prestigious North South University, Rahman said.

Haider's body was found with hatchet wounds to the head in what police said was an apparent attempt to behead him.

Haider's brother, who asked not to be named, told his sibling -- better known by his online identity Thaba Baba -- had been "threatened frequently" for his role in the protests and his writings against the religion.

Protests encouraged by the country's bloggers have seen thousands of people take to the streets demanding the execution of leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, on trial for crimes allegedly committed during the country's 1971 independence war.