Sagar Biswas :
Investigators could not unearth the mystery behind the militant attack at the Spanish café in the city’s Gulshan diplomatic enclave though one month has already been elapsed in the meantime.
Not only that, the security forces also could not nab anyone till the date who was directly involved in the planning, financing or coordinating the deadly attack, which claimed lives of 22 people, including nine Italians, seven Japanese, four Bangladeshis [including two policemen], one Indian and a Bangladeshi-born US citizen.
In contrary, the police have been playing hide and seek game about the detainees who were taken under custody on suspicion of their involvement in terror attack in the city’s Gulshan on July 1 last, which was ultimately claimed by the ISIL.
Especially, the relating agencies are giving contradictory statements about two Bangladeshi-origin British and Canadian citizens – Hasnat Karim and Tahmid Hasib Khan. At least five other hostages, rescued from the building following the army raid, are also being questioned for their suspicious activities, sources said.
On July 1 night, Hasanat Karim, 35, was at the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant with his wife and two children during the siege, but the militants allowed him to leave roughly half an hour before army commandos launched operation.
Sources close to the investigators told The New Nation that security officials took Hasnat into custody after finding his driving licence in the pocket of one of the six militants killed in the attack. There was also another finding that Hasnat was a former teacher of North South University, which was attended by Nibras Islam, a 22-year-old militant, killed in commando operation.
Requesting not to be named, a senior police official said: “Security officials have found a ‘note’ in the pocket of a slain terrorist where the house address of Hasanat was written. Police have also searched his house to check his computer.”
On the other hand, Chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crimes Unit Md Monirul Islam on Thursday said: “We’re still in the preliminary stage of the investigation. It is not possible to say anything specifically about him [Hasnat] just now.”
Where is Hasnat Karim at present? Monirul Islam, who is also Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, “We’ve handed over him to his family after preliminary interrogation.”
But it is alleged that none of the detainees, including Bangladeshi-origin Canadian citizen Tahmid Hasib Khan, rescued from hostage-taking situation at Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1, were released from police custody till the date.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP] Commissioner Asaduzzamn Mia on July 16 said Hasnat Karim and Tahmid Hasib Khan were in the custody of law enforcers for interrogation. He, however, did not disclose where they have been kept.
“Tahmid is still under custody of security forces. So far as we know, other suspects who were rescued from Holey Artisan Bakery are also under police custody,” a close relative of Tahmid told The New Nation yesterday preferring to remain anonymous.
Earlier on July 12, Amnesty International in a statement said Bangladeshi authorities must establish the fate and whereabouts of a surviving hostage from the recent Dhaka restaurant attack who has been missing since taken by police for questioning.
In another development, Chittagong Awami League leader Azizul Haque, who is also father of Sabbirul Haque Konic filed a General Diary with Bakolia Police Station on Friday following the missing of his son about five months ago.
Sabbir’s name came into forefront after joint forces’ operation in Dhaka’s Kalynpur area. Police after preliminary investigation suspected that one of the dead militants was Sabbirul. But family members seeing the dead bodies in the morgue said that he [Sabbirul] was not among the dead.
“After five months, Azizul Haque, resident of Barunchhara union under Anowara upazila filed a GD on Friday night over missing of his son,” Officer-in-Charge of Bakolia Police Station said on Saturday.
“He was a student of Sitakunda Campus of International Islamic University in Chittagong, which is run by Jamaat-e-Islami finance. Sabbirul came out of his house saying that he would attend a marriage ceremony. And he went missing,” the OC said.
Meanwhile, Indian news media on Saturday reported that at least five Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh [JMB] terrorists, whose names appear in the latest list, handed over by Rapid Action Batallion [RAB] to Indian authorities, suspected to have sneaked into India.
These names, which came to surface a day before Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal’s visit to India, is a crucial part of Kamal’s discussions with Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday, sources said. These include Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury from Sylhet, a Canadian expatriate who is believed to be the coordinator of Islamic State in Bangladesh and mastermind of the Gulshan attack, the Times of India said.
Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen, is suspected to be the links of local terror outfits in the neighbouring country and ISIS. Another was Junoon Sikdar, resident of Comilla, arrested by Bangladesh police in 2009 under Anti Terrorism Act. Earlier a computer science student at a private university in Dhaka was again arrested in 2013 for his alleged links with the Ansarullah Bangla Team. Sikdar, who was recruiting people for the Jihadi group, was later released on bail and he left for Malaysia.
Nazibullah Ansari, resident of Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh went to Malaysia to study marine engineering. Last year, a missing diary was filed with the Chittagong police station after Ansari wrote to his brother that he had decided to join IS and shift to Iraq.
ATM Tajuddin, who was studying computer engineering at a US based University was missing since 2013. A missing diary was filed at Laxmipur Sadar police station in Bangladesh, earlier this month. Mohammad Saifulla Ojaki alias Sujit Debnath, a professor of business administration with the Asia Pacific University, Japan was missing for last one year. His father Janardan Debnath later filed a missing diary with Nabinagar in Bangladesh, the TOI reported.
