Security camera catches assassins of LGBT rights activist, his friend fleeing

Images of the killers of gay-rights activist Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy were captured by a nearby security camera while they were fleeing the murder scene in Dhaka’s Kalabagan.

Kamal Talukder and Golam Mujtaba Dhrubabdnews24.com
Published : 26 April 2016, 05:28 PM
Updated : 27 April 2016, 09:28 AM

Witness accounts suggest that the killers knew they would have to flee through a crowd of people and they were ready for that.

The footage from the CCTV camera at a nearby building shows five men running in an alley while people stared on following the attack in the dense residential neighbourhood on Monday afternoon.

The video shows a few other men behaving suspiciously while the attackers fled, police officials say.

“It was a well-planned attack. We guess they did a recce in the area (a study of the area) before planning the murders,” police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque told reporters while visiting the area on Monday. 

“The killers look aggressive, well-organised. They were prepared for any harm that they might encounter,” said Xulhaz’s elder brother Minhaz Mannan.

Xulhaz, who worked as a programme officer for USAID besides editing Bangladesh’s only LGBT rights magazine Roopbaan, used to live on the first floor of the six-storey apartment building, Asia Nibas, with his 90-year-old mother and a house help.

People were passing the alley in front of the building and shops there were open.  There were also people gathered at Tentultala Math, a nearby playground.

Witnesses, wishing anonymity, said the five men fired several rounds when people attempted to stop them. Xulhaz’s building did not have security cameras but the entrance was guarded by watchmen.

Security guard Parvez Molla, injured in the attack, said the men told him they had come to deliver a parcel but Xulhaz refused to let them in when they went up to the apartment door.

The men pushed their way through, he added. 

The neighbours stayed inside despite the screams from the victims and the shots fired by the attackers, according to him.

Another witness said she saw five to seven men running away while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’. They were wearing t-shirts and carrying backpacks, she said. 

They crossed Tentultala field, where children were playing, and the shops in the area were open, according to her.

Witnesses said some people tried to catch the machete-wielding killers but had to step back when the attackers fired from their weapons.

Locals identified those caught on camera running away as the assailants. The footage was captured around 6pm. 

In the footage, a police car is seen going in the direction from where the attackers came seconds before they were seen.

A police car is again seen going towards the direction the attackers fled seconds after they had run away. bdnews24.com could not confirm whether it was the same car.

After the murders, police said Assistant Sub-Inspector ‘Momtaz’, who was patrolling the area, got hold of an attacker but he fled by stabbing the ASI.

Police said Momtaz grabbed a bag, in which a pistol, a locally made firearm, ammunition and a mobile phone were found.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said these were ‘important evidence’.

Abdur Rahman, a shopkeeper in the neighbourhood who was on his way to a nearby mosque for Asr prayers during the incident, said he saw around five youths, in their 18 to 20, crossing Ena Kingdom, a building in the area. 

“They were shouting ‘Naraye Takbir- Allahu Akbar’.”

He said there were at least 150 people on and around Tentultala playground at the time.

Rahman said they fired from their guns when some other youths chased them.

He could not see where the attackers went.

‘Harun’, who keeps a shop in the area, said he thought they were robbers since they were carrying machetes.

He along with some others gave them a chase but gave up when the killers fired.

‘Yasmin’, the owner of a tailoring shop on the ground floor of Asia Nibas, said she shuttered down the shop in panic on hearing the screams.

“Hijras (transgenders) often visit that house (of Xulhaz). I thought the hijras were fighting,” she said.

Police have not disclosed anything about the motive or suspects. Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has reportedly claimed credit for the murders.