Staff Reporter :
State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and six other distinguished persons on Monday received death threat from the recently banned Islamist militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team [ABT].
Former Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor AK Azad Chowdhury on Tuesday received a death threat through a letter sent to his house in Dhanmondi by mail. Six other names were also found in the “hit-list” drawn up by Islamist extremists.
The title of the letter is ‘second list of death’. Targeting the listed people, it has warned ‘Must you will prepare for death.’
The fresh death threat came 14 days after the incumbent Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor, AAMS Arefin Siddique, received a similar threat by post sent by Al Qaida.
“Seven people, including DU acting Proctor Amzad Ali, have been listed in the latest letter,” Officer-in Charge of Dhanmondi Police Station Noor-e-Azam Mia said. “The others are : Jahurul Haque Hall Provost Delwar Hossain, Arts Faculty Dean Akhtaruzzaman, actor Shomi Kaiser and one Abu Musa M Masuduzzaman Zakaria,” he said.
A General Diary was filed in this connection around 5:30pm on Tuesday and the police are trying to trace the culprits, said the OC.
Regarding the fresh threat, DU VC and acting proctor blamed law enforcers and said their failure in arresting the criminals have encouraged the militants to issue fresh threats.
A militant group known as the ABT was banned recently after being linked by police to the three murders, becoming the sixth Islamist group to be outlawed in Bangladesh.
The listed persons were branded in different way — Professor AK Azad (Islamic enemy), Asaduzzaman Khan (Minister traitor BD), Mohammad Delwar Hossain (Anti-Islam writer), Shomi Kaiser (Atheist), Md Masuduzzaman (Anti-Islamic worker), M Amzad Ali (Defamer of DU), Akhtaruzzaman (Islamic enemy).
Recently, late professor Humayun Azad’s son Ananya Azad also received a similar threat. He told The Guardian that he feared he would be the next to die after three others as his name was on a “hit-list.”
