‘Hitlist’ of 12 found

Police have found a possible hitlist of 12 persons including slain blog activist Ahmed Rajib Haider and two ministers at the office of radical group ‘Ansarullah Bangla Team’ chief.

Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani and 30 others were arrested from a clandestine meeting at Barguna on Monday.

The police believe the extremist outfit was planning to kill those named on the hitlist.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police recovered several books and more than 50 CDs during the 90-minute long raid at Rahmani’s office adjacent to the Bosila Mosque on Tuesday.

DMP Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said the list also named blogger Asif Mohiuddin who had suffered a murderous assault.

“The list contains names of several high-profile men including two ministers,” he said.

“We are trying to find out whether they had plans to eliminate them (people on the list),” he said.

He, however, did not disclose names of others on the list for the sake of investigation.

Ganajagaran Mancha and blog activist Ahmed Rajib Haider was slashed to death on Feb 15 in Dhaka.

Five students of private North South University arrested over the murder gave confessional statements in court in March. Rahmani’s name came up as the instigator.

Earlier on Jan 14, another blog activist Asif Mohiuddin was attacked in Uttara.

Barguna’s Superintendent of Police Shyamal Kanti Nath said Rahmani was an extremist leader.

“We have garnered important information from him. There are two cases against him with Dhaka’s Pallabi and Uttara police stations.

“He is a suspect in blogger Rajib murder case filed with the Pallabi Police Station. He is also an accused in a brawl case in the Uttara Police Station.”

A Barguna court on Tuesday sent him and 30 others to jail pending trial.

The others detained are supporters of Rahamani. All of them have been accused in a case filed under the Information and Communication Technology Act with the Barguna police.

However, no one was detained during Tuesday night’s raid at Basila.