‘Police detain’ Dhaka cafe terror attack ‘mastermind’ Marzan’s father

Detectives have reportedly detained the father of Nurul Islam Marzan, one of the alleged masterminds of Gulshan terror attack.

People posing as members of Detective Branch picked Nizam Uddin up from Afuria village in Pabna on Monday evening, his relatives say.

Local police, however, did not comment on the matter.

Nizam’s daughter told reporters that her brother Marzan has been out of the family’s reach for eight months.

“My brother was a very good student. I demand trial of those who turned him into a militant,” said the schoolgirl.

“If my brother was involved in the incident (Gulshan attack), I want him to be tried too,” she added.

Mohammad Rana and Sagar Hossain Rony, residents of the village, said they saw people identifying themselves as DB men picking Nizam up.

Pabna DB OC Jahangir Alam declined to comment on the matter.

Alamgir Kabir, Superintendent of Police in Pabna, told bdnews24.com: “There are many agencies. Actually even we don’t know who are working on the matter.”

Police’s counterterrorism unit is investigating the case started over the killings of 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners, and two police officers in the July 1-2 attack on Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen at Dhaka’s diplomatic district Gulshan.

After releasing Marzan’s photo last Friday, the unit’s chief Monirul Islam said this youth had disseminated the photos and messages sent by the militants from inside the eatery.

He said the youth is known as ‘Marzan’ in their organisation, but investigators do not have any more information on him at the moment.

Marzan’s name come up after police identified two other suspects, Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury and disgraced army Major Syed Md Ziaul Haque, as the masterminds of the deadly militant attacks in recent times.

Before his detention on Monday, Marzan’s father Nizam told reporters he had only come to know about his son’s current status after seeing his photo released by police.

Marzan is the second of hosiery factory worker Nizam’s 10 children.

Nizam said he had found it ‘very difficult’ to pay Marzan’s tuition fees.

“He wanted to study in university after clearing Alim test. He got the chance at Chittagong University as he was a good student. I said ‘I don’t have money, how can I send you to university?’

“He said he could get by with some private tuition jobs later if I could pay for some months.

“We had good contact in the first few months, but then he stopped communicating. We thought he was not coming because he had married,” he added.

Earlier on Monday, a top DB official, requesting anonymity, told bdnews24.com that Marzan’s full name is Nurul Islam Marzan and he hails from Pabna.

He also said police have information that Marzan is a student of Chittagong University.

His family members later said he was admitted to Chittagong University’s Arabic department in 2014 after passing Dakhil and Alim exams from Pana Alyia Madrasa.

Chittagong University Proctor Ali Asgar Chowdhury told bdnews24.com the law enforcers did not contact the university authorities about the matter.

“But Nurul Islam’s name was not on the list of absentee students we had provided to police. And all the six absentee students have been found,” he added.

Vice-Chancellor Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury said the authorities were checking whether Marzan is a student of the university’s Arabic department.