Suspected extremists on Sunday snatched and took away two convicts, condemned in the cases of murdering publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan and free-thinking writer and blogger Avijit Roy, from the road adjacent to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka, police said.

The convicts who were snatched from police custody are Mainul Islam Shamim, 25, of Sunamganj and Abu Siddique Sohel alias Sakibur, 34, of Lalmonirhat and they are members of banned extremist outfit Ansar Al Islam.

‘Extremists snatched the two at about 11:45am from the road adjacent to the CMM Court in Old Dhaka. They were being taken to the court from Kashimpur jail in Gazipur for producing before a court in a case,’ Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Kotwali Zone additional deputy commissioner Muhith Kabir Serniabat said.

He said that the two extremists were snatched by spraying something on the eyes of the policemen.

Officials in the court said that both Mainul Islam Shamim and Abu Siddique Sohel were among eight condemned convicted in the case of killing Faisal Arefin Dipan while only Abu Siddique Sohel was among the five condemned ones in the case of killing Avijit.

On February 10, 2021, a Dhaka tribunal sentenced eight members of the banned extremist group to death for killing Dipan in October 2015.

On February 16, 2021, a tribunal in Dhaka sentenced five members of banned extremist outfit Ansar-Al-Islam to death and another to life term imprisonment in a case over the killing of Avijit Roy in February 2015.