Sagar Biswas :Intelligence agencies have launched an extensive investigation into the Islamist militants-led hostage incident by interviewing the people who were rescued from 15-hour captivity inside Holey Artisan Bakery in the city.All of the 13 rescued persons were taken to office of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit at Minto Road on Saturday night to know the Friday night’s incident in details. Earlier, they were questioned by officials of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence [DGFI] soon after the army commandos rescued them raiding the Spanish restaurant. Apart from them, they are also quizzing a militant, who was captured from restaurant during the raid. “Apart from 13 rescued, a total of 27 people have been interviewed. We’re scrutinizing the information gathered from them. They were inside the restaurant over 15 hours. They are eye witnesses. So, they can elaborate the scenario,” Masudur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said. “We’re taking their names and other details. It’s part of the investigation. Of them, some will be taken as plaintiffs. Besides, we’re handing over them to their family members. Several persons have already been released. The rest will go soon,” the DC DB said.Officer-in-Charge of Gulshan police station Sirajul Islam said that no case was filed till Sunday night in connection with the terror attack. But interestingly, the police and other intelligence agencies are totally mum how the terrorists gathered such quantity of modern fire arms and explosives, and took them to high-security diplomatic zone dodging surveillance of security personnel.It’s also a million dollar question how the militants were able to carry the bags full of arms and ammunition to their targeted restaurant while the entire diplomatic zone is covered with dozens of security cameras [close-circuit cameras]?Obviously, the lack of advance information as well failure of intelligence gathering about the regrouping of terrorists has appeared as big threat to the national security. Besides, the recently conducted anti-militant crackdown by police across the country has also turned into a farce. “We didn’t get any advance information about Gulshan terror attack earlier. If there was advance information, the police would take protective measures,” Inspector General of Police, AKM Shahidul Haque, said yesterday.The IGP categorically said that the terrorists killed in Gulshan were the members of banned militant outfit Jam’matul Mujahedin Bangladesh [JMB], and they may be linked with any international militant organisation. When he was asked about the news update of SITE Intelligence, the IGP further said: “We’ve no information whether the militants earlier had announced about the Gulshan attack through twitter. ….It’s an attack of organized militant group. We’ll take legal action against them after a thorough investigation.”It is still not clear whether the security agencies were really aware of the militancy situation, or failed to understand the importance of the situation. The ISIS-aligned AMAK news agency published the pictures of 20 slaughtered hostages in the Gulshan restaurant on Friday night. The international agency Reuters also carried the news before the army-led commando operation next morning. After operation, the commandos recovered 20 slaughtered bodies from there. Of them, 17 were foreigners, two Bangladeshis and one Bangladesh-born American. But strangely, the security officials were busy to negotiate with the armed militants on Friday night.In this backdrop, the Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday said: “The seven militants who killed 20 foreign and local nationals in the restaurant were members of a local militant outfit…..They have no link with ISIS.” Detailing the family status of the militants, the Minister said: “All of them [militants] are highly educated and university students. They all came from affluent families. It has now become a fashion to join Islamist militancy.”Meanwhile, the pictures of militants have become viral in the social media, including facebook. Three of the six militants were students of English medium schools and completed education in private varsities. Later, they went to Monash University in Malaysia.
