Multiple militants were involved in Aug 15 attack plot, police say

Police say the plot to kill the mourners on Aug 15 did not involve a lone wolf, rather many militants were involved in designing and executing the 'operations' that could have killed 'hundreds of grievers' on National Mourning Day.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 16 August 2017, 06:36 PM
Updated : 16 August 2017, 06:36 PM

"According to information we've gathered so far, there were more than one person involved - it was not only Saiful. They all will be brought to justice," Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia told journalists on Wednesday.

Saiful Islam, a former Islami Chhatra Shibir activist, exploded his 'suicide vest' when the security forces raided a residential hotel in Dhaka's Panthapath hours before mourners were supposed to go to Dhanmandi Road No. 32 to pay tribute to independence architect Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The Dhaka City police chief appeared before The media on Wednesday to divulge initial findings of the investigation into the alleged plot by the militants.

He said, "Only Saiful, among those involved in the alleged plot, was staying in Hotel Olio International."

"His accomplices may have been in other places of the capital. Detectives and counterterrorism unit are working on the matter," the DMP commissioner said.

An official at the police's Counterterrorism and Transnational Crimes unit told bdnews24.com that they went to the hotel on Monday morning on gathering information about militants there, but did not find Saiful at the time.

The law enforcers raided the hotel early in the next morning after being optimistic about Saiful's presence, he added.

Police were preparing a case over the raid, Kalabagan Police Station Inspector Samir Chandra Sutradhar said.

After a post-mortem examination on Saiful's body on Wednesday, Dhaka Medical College forensic department head Dr Soheil Mahmud said, "Splinters were found in several parts of the body."

"Electric wires and plastics were also found. It seemed those were used to tie the suicide vest to the body," he said.

Dr Mahmud also said one of the splinters pierced Saiful's head through his eye. "Initially, it appears his head was smashed."

He added: "No bullet was found in the body. He died in the blast."

The law enforcers cordoned off the hotel at Panthapath, closing off a kilometre-stretch road from Russel Square to Green Road, early in the morning on Tuesday just before the programmes to mourn the deaths of Bangabandhu and most of his family members started.

The Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi 32, where President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid respects to Bangabandhu earlier in the morning, is located some 300 metres away from the hotel.

A madrasa student from Khulna, Saiful Islam blew himself up on the fourth floor of the hotel during the raid later in the morning.

According to the police, Saiful, a former member of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, was working as an operative of Neo-JMB, the revived faction of the outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB.

The group had planned to kill hundreds in a suicide bomb attack at Dhanmondi 32, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque said after the operation.