Dhaka cafe attackers were JMB operatives, says Bangladesh Police chief

Bangladesh Police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque has said the killers of 20 people including 17 foreigners at a cafe in Dhaka were members of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

The inspector general of police (IGP) now agrees that the possibility of a link between international terror groups and those involved in the attack at the upmarket restaurant in the city’s diplomatic zone cannot be ruled out. 

But he says that is yet to be determined.
 
Hoque says they have been looking for five of the attackers, who were killed during Saturday morning’s commando counterstrike to free the hostages.
 
But the IGP would not give details of their identities while talking to reporters at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Sunday.
 
He went to the hospital to visit policemen ‘Alamgir’ and ‘Pradip’ and driver Abdur Razzak, who were injured in an exchange of fire after the terrorists took over the Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen in Gulshan-2 on Friday evening.
 
Two police officers - DB’s Assistant Commissioner Robiul Karim and Banani police OC MD Salahuddin – had also died from injuries sustained during the firefight.
 
“Our initial suspicion is that those (terrorists) killed are members of the JMB, and we have been searching for them as JMB operatives,” Hoque said.

Within hours of the seige, Islamic State had reportedly claimed responsibility. It also released the photos of five of the attackers, claiming they were its operatives.
 
Security officials have been rejecting ties between the gunmen and IS even after the Middle East-based terror group had threatened to mount attack during Ramadan and published photos of the attackers.
 
Regarding that issue, IGP Hoque said, “So far, that’s all we know. We’ll be able to give our final opinion after the investigation ends. For now, we are considering them as JMB operatives.”
 
The Rajshahi-based JMB, which had first made the headlines during the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami alliance’s regime, was banned in February 2005. 
 
But it stole the spotlight by becoming a larger threat when it carried out synchronised bomb explosions throughout Bangladesh in August that year.
 
Top JMB leaders including Shayakh Abdur Rahman and Siddikur Rahman alias ‘Bangla Bhai’ were later convicted and executed for their crimes.
 
As the law-enforcing agencies cornered the militant organisation, another terror group named Ansarullah Bangla Team became more active. It is blamed for a number of attacks and murders by the agencies.
 
The IS has been reportedly claiming credit for a number of murders in Bangladesh in the past one and a half years, but police rejected all of them. 
 
The government also says there is a conspiracy to prove the militant group’s existence in the country.
 
But police chief Hoque on Sunday told reporters, “Today, the world is open. Any person can communicate (with international terrorists) anytime they like.
 
“They (cafe attackers) may have links to international terrorist groups. But we don’t know that yet.”

One of the five IS reportedly claimed to be the gunmen who launched Friday’s terror attack has been identified by an Awami League leader as Rohan Ibne Imtiaz, the son of another leader of the ruling party’s Dhaka metropolitan unit.

His father SM Imtiaz Khan Babul, also Bangladesh Olympic Association’s deputy secretary general, lodged a General Diary at Mohammadpur Police Station on Jan 4 this year stating that his son had gone missing.
 
But IS had identified Rohan as Abu Rahiq in the photos released.
 
Asked whether police were looking into this matter, the police chief said, “We’ll have to crosscheck it with Mohammadpur police. They (militants) use nicknames and aliases. We don’t know their home addresses or where they hailed from.”
 
“We’re considering the six (killed during commando operation) as militants. We were also looking for five of them.”
 
Though it was said that six terrorists were killed during the raid, Police Headquarters on Sunday released photos of five to the media.
 
Hoque told journalists, “No photos have been released officially. But you still got them.”