Rajshahi Correspondent :
Sumaiya, who surrendered to police during ‘Operation Sun Devil’ at Benipur village of Godagari upazila in Rajshahi district, was put on 10-day remand for interrogation.
Senior Judicial Magistrate of Rajshahi Saiful Islam passed the order on Sunday morning.
Sumaiya was brought to a Rajshahi Court around 11:30am for 15 days remand. But the court granted 10-day remand, said Altaf Hossain, Investigation Officer in the case and Inspector of Godagari PS.
“Sumaiya was brought to the court under heavy security in the morning,” the Police official said.
The law enforcing agencies cordoned off the militant den of the upazila on Wednesday and ended the operation on Friday where five militants and fire fighters were killed in suicide blasts on May 11 as law enforcers were preparing to raid the hideout.
They were Sumaiya’s parents Sazzad and Lutfunnesa Bely, brother Al Amin, sister Karima and madrasa student Ashraful.
A local Police official claimed that Sumaiya knew some of the top militants, who were acquainted with her father Sazzad Ali and visited his house in the last two months. One of them supplied grenades to Gulshan café attackers.
She told police during interrogation that her father got involved with banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) when Shaykh Abdur Rahman was its chief. Sazzad influenced his family members also.
Nisharul Arif, Additional Deputy Inspector General (Rajshahi Range) of police, said that they showed Sumaiya 12 photographs of listed militants and she identified four of them, including Sohel Mahfuz, a former Majlis-e-Shura member of JMB. Sohel of Kushtia later joined “Neo-JMB” as an explosive expert. He was known as Hatkata Sohel for a cut mark in his left hand. He allegedly supplied grenades used in Gulshan café attack on July 1 last year, the Additional DIG said.
Sohel was a distant relative of Nurul Islam Marzan, the suspected operational commander of the Gulshan attack. The additional DIG, however, refused to disclose the names of other militant suspects.
After the executions of some top JMB leaders, Sohel became a member of the JMB’s Majlis-e-Shura, the highest policymaking body of the outfit, with Maulana Saidur Rahman as its chief. Sumaiya told investigators that Sazzad became a member of JMB with the help of his cousin Monirul Islam, a close associate of kingpin Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. According to her, Sazzad became active in “Neo-JMB” politics two years ago when Monirul was freed from jail. On Friday, the five came out of Sazzad’s house together. Ashraful and Al Amin wore suicide vests, additional DIG Arif said quoting Sumaiya. Within seconds, Sazzad carrying a pointed rod ran towards firefighter Matin while his wife Bely with a sickle, daughter Karima with a knife and son Al Amin with a dagger followed Sazzad. Ashraful turned to the east targeting a police official. A little later, Sumaiya along with her child came out and stood in a cropland. Hifjur Rahman, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Godagari Police Station, quoted Sumaiya as saying that the militants had a plan to kill at least one cop. Police are hunting for the militants as per her information, the OC said.
