DHAKA, March 2: Police arrested five students on Saturday on charges of murdering an anti-Islamist blogger, as four people were killed in fresh protests over the sentencing to death of a Jamaat-i-Islami leader for war crimes.

The students allegedly confessed to hacking to death blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider after he helped organise protests against leaders of the biggest Islamist party, who are being tried by a war crimes court, police said.

The students, all enrolled at the elite private North South University, targeted Haider, 35, “because of his allegedly blasphemous writings against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him),” Dhaka police deputy commissioner Masudur Rahman said.

“They tracked him by his Facebook account” and “on the day of the murder they played cricket in front of his home and waited for his return”, he said.—AFP