![\"Xulhaz](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.towleroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2_mannan.jpg?resize=740%2C413\")
<\/p>\nBangladesh Police Arrest IT Chief Of Group Blamed For Gay Activists\u2019 Deaths<\/b><\/p>\n
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Chief of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police\u2019s counter-terrorism unit\u00a0Monirul Islam\u00a0on Tuesday announced that they had apprehended the alleged head of information technology for the al Qaeda-inspired militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team, which has been blamed for the brutal hacking<\/a> of secular bloggers and LGBT rights activists, NBC News reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Former Secretary of State John Kerry last April called<\/a> Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, offering support related to\u00a0the investigation into the violent attack that killed Xulhaz\u00a0Mannan<\/a>, a U.S. Embassy employee, a\u00a0gay<\/a> rights activist and the editor of\u00a0Bangladesh\u2019s first LGBT magazine Roopbaan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Rahman was arrested in Dhaka on Monday\u00a0and was studying computer science when he became involved with ABT. Islam claims that while with ABT, Rahman was close to the group\u2019s head of military operations, former army major Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque. Haque allegedly went underground after the Bangladesh military claimed he had been\u00a0aiding a plot to overthrow the government in 2011.<\/p>\n The post Bangladesh Police Arrest IT Chief Of Group Blamed For Gay Activists\u2019 Deaths<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\nPREVIOUSLY:\u00a0Bangladesh Police Kill Islamist Militant Who Murdered Gay Activists, Liberal Bloggers<\/em><\/a><\/h2>\n
The police currently hold ABT responsible for a numbers of attacks, since February 2015, that claimed\u00a0the lives of five bloggers, a publisher and two gay<\/a> rights activists \u2014Mannan and Mahbub Tonoy \u2014 NBC reports. While al Qaeda and the Islamic State have taken credit<\/a> for many killings in the country, authorities deny their presence\u00a0and instead blame home-grown groups for these attacks.<\/div>\n