Mother says alleged arms supplier in Gulshan cafe attack left home over a decade ago

Hadisur Rahman Sagar, the suspected arms supplier to Gulshan cafe attackers in Dhaka, had left home over a decade before the 2016 carnage, his mother says.

Police arrested Sagar, 35, a leader of the revived Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or Neo-JMB, along with one Akram Hossain Niloy, 25, early on Thursday in Bogra’s Shibganj.

On July 1, 2016, suspected Islamists brandishing guns and sharp weapons stormed the upscale eatery, Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen restaurant, in capital’s Gulshan diplomatic enclave.

Twenty unsuspected diners, including 17 foreigners, and two police officers were killed in the attack.   

Police have blamed the Neo-JMB militant group for the attack and identified Sagar as the supplier of the arms used in it.

Niloy, the other suspect held in Bogra, financed the bomber who blew himself up during a raid on a hotel in Dhaka’s Panthapath on Aug 15 last year.

Sagar, the second among the five children of village doctor Harunur Rashid and grocer Asia Khatun from Joypurhat’s Polikadoa Koiraparha village, had studied at a local madrasa.

Asia told bdnews24.com on Friday Sagar passed Dakhil, equivalent to Secondary School Certificate, exams in 2001 but failed Alim, equivalent to Higher Secondary Certificate, tests.

After around two to three more years, he left home after a fight with her, Asia said, adding that they had looked for him for a long time but could not find him.

The family also filed a general diary at the local police station, she said.

Sagar contacted the family several times later and visited home for the last time in 2014 with his wife, Asia added.

She said police detectives in 2016 quizzed Sagar’s father.    

Sagar’s aunt Kobita Khatun said they had not imagined Sagar could have joined JMB.

Their neighbours say Sagar was a calm man and said his prayers regularly. They said they came to know about his alleged involvement with militancy after the arrest.