Bangladeshi-American ‘militant’ Shehzad was grandson of Bangladesh’s top spy agency chief

Shehzad Rouf Arka alias Morocco, the Bangladeshi-American ‘militant’ killed in Kalyanpur anti-terror operation, is the grandson of former National Security Intelligence (NSI) chief Brigadier General Abdur Rouf.

Shehzad’s father Tawhid Rouf was a contractor of the army.

The 24-year old returned to Bangladesh in 2009 and enrolled at North South University next year after passing out from American International School.

His name was on the RAB list of missing youths, who are suspected to have joined militants.

The elite police unit released the list after it emerged that the youths, who had carried out the Gulshan and Sholakia terror attacks, had been missing for months.

Twenty-two persons, among them as many as 17 foreigners and two policemen, were killed in Bangladesh’s deadliest terror attack in a Gulshan cafe on July 1.

Two policemen and a woman died in the Sholakia attack during Eid celebrations on July 7.

Shehzad’s father Tawhid, a resident of Dhaka’s Basundhara, said his son had been missing since February. He had filed a general diary at Bhatara Police Station.

Tawhid contacted police on suspicion that his son was among the nine suspected militants whose photos police released after they were killed in the Kalyanpur raid early on Tuesday.

He found some similarities between his son and the body of a dead Kalyanpur ‘militant’ at Dhaka Medical College mortuary, but he was not sure.

Police on Wednesday night confirmed the body was of Shehzad after matching fingerprints.

The law enforcers said the youths had gathered at the house in Kalyanpur to carry out a ‘major attack’.

Shehzad’s grandfather retired Brigadier General Abdur Rouf, promoted in 1973 after repatriation from Pakistan, headed the then Directorate of Forces Intelligence (DFI) as its Director “until around Aug 10, 1975”, a DFI officer at the time told bdnews24.com on Thursday.

“Brig Rouf was posted out and Col Jamil (already promoted as brigadier) was posted in,” the officer recalled. “But the day before Brig Jamil was to take over at DFI, he was killed.”

The officer, who did not wish to be named, said Brig Rouf had been promoted as head of National Security Intelligence “but the Bangabandhu was murdered in between his (Rouf’s) leaving DFI and taking over at NSI”.

Arafat Hossain Tushar, one of the three youths who appeared in a so-called Islamic State video released after the Gulshan cafe siege, is the son of a former army officer.

Late Bangladesh Army Major Washikur Azad’s son Tushar is the former husband of model Naila Nayem.

The Washington Post has reported that Shehzad was born in Bangladesh and emigrated with his family in 1999.

In an interview with the newspaper, father Tawhid said they moved back to Bangladesh in 2009 so his wife could be treated for cancer; she has since died.

The report said Shehzad’s father is an arms and military supplies trader.

Kolkata’s ‘Telegraph’ newspaper, quoting a relative of Shehzad, said, "Shehzad's mother died in 2009. Since then, he started praying five times a day.. But we never thought that he would become a terrorist."

On Thursday, a security guard at Shehzad’s house in Basundhara residential area said Tawhid did not return after leaving the house on Wednesday morning.

Bhatara Police Station OC Nurul Mottakin said he might have been at any relative’s house.

Raihan Kabir alias Tarek, who was killed along with Shehzad, was the coordinator of the Dhaka unit of banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), police said.

Police said Tarek had trained the Gulshan cafe attackers.

The law enforcers also said all the militants killed in Gulshan and Kalyanpur were JMB operatives.

Police said Shehzad was a friend of Nibras Islam, one of the dead Gulshan attackers.

Both of them studied in Monash University at its Malaysia campus and in North South University in Dhaka.

They had also been accused in a same case registered with Shahbagh police.

Nibras had been missing since Feb 3.

He had been staying in Jhenaidah with another North South University student, Abir Rahman, who was killed in a gunfight with police during the Sholakia attack.

It is being suspected that Shehzad was among the eight other youths at the house in Jhenaidah.