Terror attack ‘masterminds’ Tamim, Zia are in Bangladesh, police say

The alleged masterminds of the deadly terror attacks in recent times, Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury and Syed Md Ziaul Haque, are in Bangladesh, police say.

Police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque announced Tk 2 million for information on each of the duo on Tuesday.

After the news conference held for the announcement, police’s counterterrorism unit chief Monirul Islam told bdnews24.com that Canadian-Bangladeshi Tamim was in Bangladesh even before the Kalyanpur raid in which nine suspected militants were killed on July 26.

“We don’t have information that he has left the country,” he added.

Tamim, a resident of Windsor, has been ‘missing’ since he had returned to Bangladesh via Dubai in 2013.

Asked why he had not been arrested at that time, Monirul said the security forces had not known about his involvement in militancy.

“His name came up in investigations in 2015,” Monirul said.

About dismissed army officer major Zia, the police official said several suspects arrested in different cases over militant attacks had named him.

“Zia is also in Bangladesh,” he added.

Monirul also said Zia is using aliases ‘Sagar’ and ‘Ishtiaque’.