Dhaka: Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Tuesday claimed that they have identified seven killers of blogger Avijit Roy and they belong to ‘Ansarullah Bangla Team’.

Talking to reporters at DMP media centre, Joint Commissioner (DB) Monirul Islam said they have already identified seven killers of Avijit, founder of Mukto-Mona blog and son of noted physicist Ajoy Roy.

Monirul said the detectives also got pictures and names of several of the perpetrators, but refused to disclose their names.

He, however, said all the perpetrators are members of the banned Islamic outfit ‘Ansarullah Bangla Team’.

Monirul said the seven suspected killers were identified based on specific information and evidence. Six of them obtained higher education from private universities, while another got MBBS degree, he said.

‘Avijit was introduced with the killers through social media. When he returned home from the USA, they had started following him closely and killed him when they got the chance,’ he said.

Asked whether arrested suspects Farabi and one Buet teacher Tariq Farseem Mannan were involved in the killing, Monirul said though Farabi gave death threat to Avijit through social media, detectives are yet to get any evidence that they were involved in the killing. Farseem was interrogated, not arrested.

Avijit was killed and his wife Rafida Afrin Banya injured seriously as unidentified criminals stabbed them near TSC on the Dhaka University Campus on 26 February.