Two Islamist militants on death row in Bangladesh for killing a US blogger who was critical of fundamentalist Islam have escaped court on motorbikes and gone on the run.
On Sunday, as a group were heading to a court hearing, two of the convicts escaped in what appeared to be a well-coordinated attack.
Suspected members of the Al-Qaeda militant group stormed the motorcade once it arrived at the Dhaka court complex.
Several motorcycles accosted the police escort, then a toxic substance was sprayed into the eyes of officers, temporarily blinding them, and then the two prisoners were taken away on the bikes.
Moinul Hasan Shamim and Abu Siddiq Sohel, have not been seen since and the government has launched a nationwide police hunt.
Police announced an award of 2m taka (£16,350) for tracing the convicts.
Avijit Roy, an American-Bangladeshi writer and blogger, was hacked to death with machetes in the streets of Dhaka in 2015 by the group that claimed to be inspired by Al-Qaeda.
Mr Roy’s publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan was then murdered later that year by Islamist militants from the same group, who stabbed him to death in his office.
Five members of the Islamist group, Ansarullah Bangla Team [ABT], were sentenced to death for Mr Roy’s killing and eight were put on death row for Mr Diplan’s killing.
Harun Ur Rashid, chief of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said: "Men came on bikes, and they sped away taking along the two convicts, after spraying some toxic substance.
"Strict security measures are usually maintained when the militants are brought to court. Sunday’s incident was unexpected. We have set up an inquiry to find out what went wrong that day.”
Sources told the local Daily Star newspaper that the militants had bought motorbikes using fake documents and had several master keys to unlock handcuffs and chain cutters.
A snippet of CCTV footage that was broadcast on national television showed three people on one motorcycle followed by a single rider on another motorcycle fleeing from the road where the prisoners were intercepted.
Bangladesh’s home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, said the police were searching for the men “desperately,” and that an internal investigation had been opened to determine whether state negligence contributed to their escape.
Jyotirmoy Barua, a lawyer, said: “There is a specific provision for bringing the accused who has been sentenced to maximum punishment in the court,” he said.
“They have to be brought to the court in a highly secure manner. That was not done in this case.”
