File photo

Almost six months into the killing of Biswajit Das, a Dhaka court yesterday indicted 21 Bangladesh Chhatra League activists of Jagannath University for the gruesome murder.
Of the accused, seven BCL men, detained after being identified from still photographs and video footages of the December 9 murder, pleaded not guilty before the court.
Three of them -- Mahfuzur Rahman Nahid, Kaiyyum Miah and Md Saiful Islam -- sought bail only to be denied.
While indicting the 21 men, Md Zahirul Haque of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court read out the charges highlighting the brutality of the murder, which shook the nation to its core.
The trial of the seven, along with another Jagannath student, Golam Mostofa, arrested at his village home in Manikganj on May 26, is set to begin on June 13.
Four of them have already made judicial statements confessing their role in the murder.
But police still have a major task to accomplish: arresting the rest 13 Chhatra League men who went into hiding.
Proprietor of Amantron Tailors at Shakharibazar area in Sutrapur, Bishwajit, 24, was on his way to his shop in the morning of December 9 when the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance enforced a road-blockade programme.
Following some blasts in front of Bahadur Shah Park, BCL men from JnU rushed there and swooped on Biswajit, mistaking him for a blockader. They hacked him with machetes and beat him up with iron rods and hockey sticks.
The ill-fated youth bled to death at Mitford Hospital.
As newspapers and television channels ran series of reports with stills and footages showing the perpetrators, law enforcers arrested the seven in December.
They are: Nahid, Saiful, Kayyum, AHM Kibria, GM Rasheduzzaman Shaon, Saiful Islam, Mohammad Rafiqul Islam alias Shakil and Emdadul Haque.
Shakil, Nahid, Shaon and Emdad admitted their guilt and disclosed before the court names of others who participated in the killing.
On March 5, detectives pressed charges against the 21 accused.
The fugitives are Md Alauddin, Obaidul Quader Tahsin, Imran Hossain alias Imran, Rajon Talukder, Khondoker Md Yunus Ali, Tarique Bin Zohor alias Tamal, Azizur Rahman, Noor-e-Alam Limon, Al Amin Sheikh, Monirul Haque Pavel, Mosharraf Hossain and Kamrul Hasan and Rafiqul Islam.