JMB behind Gulshan, Sholakia attacks
2 cops among 4 killed in suicide blast near Sholakia Eid ground
Staff Reporter
Rejecting the claims of the global terror group Islamic State (IS), police yesterday blamed the banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for both the Gulshan and Sholakia attacks. Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque disclosed this while briefing the media yesterday after visiting the crime scene in Sholakia. Four persons, including two policemen, were killed there on Thursday when thousands had gathered on the occasion of Eid.
About the repeated claims of IS to have masterminded the targeted killings, the IGP pointed out that the IS has claimed responsibility for every possible attack. The IS has even taken responsibility for the attack in Orlando in the US in which more than 50 people were killed, the police chief noted. About the legal step taken in the Sholakia attack, Haque said a case would be filed later in the day. He said the personnel on duty at the check-post had told the investigators that five to six militants had carried out the attack. However, the numbers could be higher than that, the police chief said, adding that they were trying to find out all of them. Haque said police had no specific information about the attack in Sholakia. However, we were suspecting militant attacks anywhere in the country, he said. Rejecting the charge of the polices weakness, the IGP said the men had continued to fight the militants despite being injured.
Our intelligence agencies are not clairvoyants and they cannot have advance information about everything. If any crime is committed in utmost secrecy, a little time is needed to find out the criminals, he added.
Asked how he was convinced that JMB was responsible for both the attacks, Haque said police had identified the Gulshan attack suspects. The Sholakia attacker who was killed and those who were arrested are also listed as JMB men, he explained.
During primary interrogation, the Sholakia attacker who was shot admitted that their organisation was also involved in the Gulshan attack, he added.
The police have identified one of the youths detained for taking part in the gruesome machete-and-bomb attack on the police near Sholakia Eidgah as Shafiul alias Saiful Islam alias Abu Muktadim alias Shohan. His father, Abdul Hai, has a record of being involved in violent protest movements organised by the BNPs Ghoraghat unit, said top police officers.
Hai was among the 150 people charge-sheeted in a case of violent clashes between the local activists of the BNP-Jamaat and the Awami League on April 9, 2014. The matter is under trial in the Dinajpur district court. Hai has been on the run for over two years now.
SM Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman, the deputy inspector general (DIG) of Dhaka range police, pointed out that a string of terror attacks, including targeted killings, has been carried out across the country ever since three JMB activists, including two death-row convicts, were snatched from a police van on February 23, 2014.
Investigations into the terror attacks that have taken place around Dhaka division since then have shown that most of the attackers swore allegiance either to BNP or to Jamaat, in addition to their loyalty to JMB and other militant outfits, Nuruzzaman added. Police have also identified the suspected Sholakia attacker who was killed. Kishoreganj SP Anwar Hossain Khan said Abir Rahman, 22, a BBA final-year student at a private university, had been missing since March. His family had lodged a general diary with Bhatara police after he went missing. Abirs family hails from Comillas Debidwar and his fathers name is Sirajul Islam. The family now lives in Dhaka. Abirs elder brother Ashikur Rahman identified him from the photos and videos released by the media, Nuruzzaman told reporters.
After completing his A level from Bangladesh International Tutorial, Abir had enrolled at North South University (NSU) for a BBA degree. Nibras Islam, one of the five suspected Gulshan attackers, was also a student at NSU. Nibras was killed in the commando operation launched to rescue the hostages of Holey Artisan Bakery on Jul 1.
The attacks and the threats by IS had cast a shadow of fear on the Eid festivities this year. The three Bangladeshi youths, who appeared in the latest IS video warning of more terror attacks in the country, were identified as a dentist, an aspiring singer, and an MBA student, officials said.
Model Naila Nayems former husband and late Bangladesh Army major Washikur Azads son Tushar is one of them. He married Nayem in 2011, but they separated.
A dentist by profession, Tushar was missing for around two years. He completed secondary education at Adamjee Cantonment Public School and higher secondary education at RAJUK Uttara Model College. He lived in Dhaka.
The youth appearing in the video with his face covered in an Arab headdress has been identified as Tawsif Hossain, a former student at Dhaka Universitys Institute of Business Administration. He left the university without completing the course.
Hossain was arrested earlier on charges of involvement with JMB. His family had sent him to Austria later, but his acquaintances in that country said he was not there.
The third youth in the video was identified as Tahmid Rahman Shafi, one of the top 10 finalists of NTVs music reality show in 1995. Shafi, who resigned from Grameenphone in 2011, is the son of late election commissioner Shafiur Rahman, his former colleagues and classmates in Notre Dame College have said.
Shafi completed his BBA at BRAC University and MBA at IBA, sources said. He had apparently once requested his father to join the IS, but the latter had refused. Shafi had then left with his wife for war-torn Syria.
All the three youths spoke in Bangla. Shafi later translated his speech into English.
Coming back to the Sholakia attack, the injured militant has not yet been interrogated properly, the Rapid Action Battalions (RAB) media wing director, Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, told this correspondent.
We shall grill him once he is better. We are also trying to arrest all the militants who carried out the Sholakia attack, he said.
Khan said that like the police, they also believe that there were more than six attackers. We are looking for them, he said.
When asked about reports that many of the youths had acquired passports before they left home to get military training abroad, Khan said they had no such information.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) deputy commissioner (media and public relations) Masudur Rahman said, We are working relentlessly. These incidents are very big and we need more time to inform the media about the progress.
