Police file case against three militants killed in Narayanganj raid, several others

Police have started a case against three suspected militants killed during Saturday’s raid at a hideout in Narayanganj and several others over the incident.

Narayanganj Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 28 August 2016, 09:58 AM
Updated : 28 August 2016, 10:01 AM

Sadar police OC Asaduzzaman filed the case on Sunday morning.

Additional SP of Special Branch Faruk Hossain said the anti-terrorism case’s list of accused mentions the three killed but contains only the name of Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, who was the alleged 'mastermind' of the Gulshan cafe.

Many unnamed others were also accused in the case, he said.

During a routine search in late July, police had come under attack from militants holed up in an apartment at Dhaka's Kalyanpur.

A SWAT team later stormed the apartment and nine suspected militants were gunned down.

On Saturday morning, a gunbattle erupted after DMP’s counter-terrorism unit began a similar raid on a three-storey building in Paikparha graveyard area at Narayanganj City, some 30 kilometres south of Dhaka.

They were joined later by members of local police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

After the one-hour-long raid, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque confirmed that three persons including Tamim were killed.

According to intelligence officials, 30-year-old Tamim has been in Bangladesh since 2013 after he was reported missing from Canada.

Police had named the Canadian-Bangladeshi, who led the 'Neo JMB', as the one who orchestrated the Jul 1 attack on the upscale Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone, killing 22 people, mostly foreigners.

Earlier this month, a reward of Tk 2 million was also announced for information leading to Tamim’s arrest.

His name came up on the list of 10 ‘missing’ youths released by the authorities after it emerged that Gulshan cafe killers and the Sholakia attackers had been reported by their families to police as missing.

International media reports, citing several Islamic State publications, have described him as the coordinator of Middle East-based militant group’s Bangladesh operations.

The Bangladesh authorities, however, maintain that Tamim led the 'Neo-JMB', which emerged after the JMB split. They also ruled out any connection between the outfit and the Islamic State.

Thought the police case did not name the other two killed with him Saturday, counter-terrorism unit chief Monirul Islam later same day confirmed that one of them was Fazle Rabbi, a second year student of Jessore MM College.

Jessore police had publicised Rabbi's photo along with those of four other missing youths, suspected to have joined militants, after the Gulshan cafe carnage.

Rabbi, the son of a former college principal, left home in April and had been 'missing' until now. His father had also filed a General Diary over his disappearance.

Monirul Islam also said the other militant killed in Narayanganj was Tawsif from Dhanmondi, but could not confirm.

bdnews24.com earlier ran a report on a youth named Tawsif Hossain and another suspected militant Shehzad Rauf Arka, who had ‘gone missing’ in March and possibly joined militants.

That Tawsif Hossain was also from Dhanmondi. Shehzad was killed in the Kalyanpur raid along with eight others.

Officers investigating cases related to militants also suspect they had been with dead cafe attacker Nibras Islam and Sholakia attacker Abir Rahman, both North South University students, in Jhenaidah.

Nibras, who had been in Malaysia to study at Monash University, was killed towards the end of the Gulshan cafe siege on July 2.

Abir was gunned down during an attack on Eid day in Kishoreganj’s Sholakia on Jul 7.

Investigators say all those who had been in the rented house in Jhenaidah were involved in the two terror attacks and are still in the country.

There had been six others with Nibras and Abir in Jhenaidah. The eight youths had left the house by the end of June, the landlord said.

Meanwhile, Narayanganj SP Moinul Haque at a press briefing on Sunday said after questioning the Paikparha building owner they have learnt that Tamim and the two others had rented a flat on the second floor on Jul 2.

“We have arrested the owner, Nur Uddin Dewan, for concealing information regarding the tenants. We are starting a case against him,” he said.

After Saturday’s raid, 10 people including Dewan, his wife and three sons were detained.

Haque said all but Dewan were released after questioning on Sunday.

Responding to a query, the SP said they believe Tamim set up the hideout at Paikparha after finding the densely populated area ‘safe’. They were planning to attack ‘foreigners’.

Police are still conducting raids at different houses in that area while additional precautionary measure were being taken, he added.

Haque said they also arrested an activist of Islami Chhatra Shibir, named Ibrahim Khalil, with some books on extremism from a building adjacent to the one that was raided on Saturday.

“Khalil was arrested on Saturday night. Three other Shibir activists who were with him managed to flee.”

He said they would look into whether the activists of Shibir, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, were connected to Tamim and other militants.