Staff Reporter :Police on Tuesday identified Bangladesh-origin Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury and sacked army official Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque alias Major Zia as the masterminds behind the most dreadful carnage in the city’s Gulshan café as well the recent militant incidents in the country.Police also declared Taka 20,00,000 as bounty each for helping the law enforcers to arrest Tamim and Zia.”Tamim and Zia have been found involved as the architects of the Gulshan and Sholakia attacks,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque said at a press briefing at the Police Headquarters in the capital on Tuesday.”And Tamim was in the country before Gulshan attack,” he said.He said Tamim and Zia had also plotted to launch another deadly terror attack at anywhere anytime in the city by the militants gunned down in Kalyanpur during raid. A special raid was made on a militant den in the city’s Kalaynpur last month where nine suspected militants were shot dead by law enforcers. When asked about the whereabouts of the two masterminds, he said police have not confirmed yet whether they are staying in the country or abroad.”Tamim Chowdhury is a leader of the banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). We have got the names of the second and third leaders of this group after Tamim,” Shahidul said. He said if Tamim and Zia are brought to book, terrorism and militancy could be uprooted from the country as they are involved in motivating the young people and recruit them as militants.”If the youths who have already been derailed and involved in militancy, want to return to normal life, they will be given legal aid and rehabilitated, if needed,” he said.He said the country must not turn into a land of militants and they can not allow them to turn the country into Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. “We will fight against militancy along with the people of the country,” the IGP said.Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) Benazir Ahmed, DMP Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman Mia and high officials concerned of the Police Headquarters were, among others, present.Police, however, claimed that these militants, including those killed during Kalyanpur raid, belonged to the banned JMB.Replying to a query about the whereabouts of Hasnat Karim, the former teacher of North South University detained for quizzing, the IGP said he is under police vigilance.The café carnage, which came following a spate of targeted killings of secular writers, bloggers, publishers, university teachers and religious leaders, is the first such attack in the country.According to police, Tamim used to visit the Kalyanpur militants in their hideout.Tamim held meetings with the Kalyanpur militants to inspire them and provide financial support for their terrorist activities, according to the statement of a case filed with Mirpur Model Police Station.Tamim has been working as a link between foreign and domestic militant groups. Since leaving Canada in 2013, he has been hiding in Bangladesh.Major (dismissed) Syed M Ziaul Haq, who made headlines by trying to engineer a military coup in 2012, is its military commander.He along with three retired army officials had plotted to overthrow the Sheikh Hasina government.Besides, they had planned to have an army brigade surround Dhaka Cantonment, Bangabhaban and the Gonobhaban, and force the President to dismiss the government and announce a new one.Two military retried military officials Lt Col (retd) Ehsan Yusuf and Major (retd) Zakir were arrested on February 4 in 2012.They instigated the plot in a bid to make the new ruler of the country. They revealed these details in their confessional statements following their arrest in December in 2012. But Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque alias Major Zia managed to escape.Several foreign governments expressed serious concern for the security of their people living in Bangladesh as the café attack victims included as many as 17 foreigners.A month ago on July 1, capital Dhaka witnessed one of the worst terror attacks in its history as gunmen attacked Holey Artisan Bakery, an upscale eatery on Road 79 of Gulshan killing 20 people after a 12 hour long hostage situation.While the horrors of Holey Artisan restaurant attack in capital Dhaka were haunting the country, the attack at Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj district also left two police officers killed on Eid Day. The law enforcers also shot a suspected militant to death in the incident.
