Apart from Maj (sacked) Ziaul Haque, the other five accused in the case are Mozammel Hossain alias Saymon, 34, Abu Siddiq Sohel alias Sakib alias Sajid, 34, Arafat Rahman Siam alias Sajjad, 24, Akram Hossain Abir alias Adnan, 30, and Shafiur Rahman Farabi, 27.

Zia and Akram are absconding since the murder of the blogger took place.

The rest of accused have been in jail. They pleaded not guilty after Judge Majibur Rahman of the Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal read out the charges to them, reported The Daily Star newspaper.

The tribunal has set Sept 11 as the date to begin the trial in the case.

US-based Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy was killed in Dhaka city in 2015.

His wife was left severely injured.

Avijit’s father Prof Ajay Roy had filed a murder case in connection with the incident.

According to the charge sheet submitted to the court on March 14, banned militant outfit Ansar Al Islam targeted Avijit for his writings, especially for his books Obisshahser Dorshon (The Philosophy of Disbelief) and Biswasher Virus (The Virus of Faith), reported The Daily Star.