Police ‘getting info on Ansarullah activities’ in Bangladesh from arrested ‘operative’

Vital information on the dreaded Ansarullah Bangla Team is emerging following the arrest of its suspected member Sumon Hossain Patwary, police have said.

Sumon alias Shihab alias Saiful was arrested on Wednesday night.

He is a prime suspect in the 2015 murder attempt on publisher Ahmedur Rashid Tutul.

He carried a bounty on his head.

"For now the Ansarullah Bangla Team has no plans for any big operation. They will stick to isolated murders through sleeper cells and then plan to go for a big attack," police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit Chief Monirul Islam revealed.

On May 19, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police said they had identified six militants involved in the murder of bloggers, secular writers and a publisher and had announced a reward of Tk 1.8 million for information leading to their arrest.

Sumon was finally arrested on Wednesday night from Uttara in Dhaka. It could not be ascertained if a civilian tip off had led to the arrest.

After the arrest, a court sent him to police remand. The information on the activities of the Ansarullah outfit came after his interrogation by police.

Police sources say Sumon hails from Chandpur, but was brought up in Chittagong. He worked as a salesman for a medical equipment store in the port city.

“He told police that he was the one who tried to kill Tutul and that five persons in all were involved in the attack,” Monirul Islam said.

On Oct 31 last year, Tutul and secular writers Tarek Rahim and Ranadipam Basu were viciously attacked at their Suddhaswar office.

The three survived the attack, but another publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, who was attacked in his own office, did not.

Detective Branch Deputy Commissioner Mashruqur Rahman Khaled said Sumon was also giving information on the murder of Dipan.

Prior to these attacks, writer Avijit Roy, who had been getting threats to life for his writing, was murdered.

Tutul and Dipan were Avijit's publisher.

The country has been witnessing a spate of attacks and murders on secular writers and thinkers, online bloggers, Hindu priests and on a Christian judge.

International terror outfits like the IS have purportedly laid claim to these attacks.

The government has however refused to buy such claims and has maintained that home-grown terror outfits were executing people in the name of international groups.