Staff Reporter :Police on Friday claimed that another suspected mastermind involved in the July 1 deadly terror attack in the city’s Gulshan café, has been identified as Marzan.Besides, the two suspected masterminds—Bangladesh-origin Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury and sacked army official Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque alias Major Zia are now staying in the capital Dhaka, Monirul Islam, additional commissioners of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) told the journalists at a press briefing at DMP media centre on Friday.”Apart from Tamim and Major Zia, another suspected mastermind identified as Marjan had also been involved in the most dreadful carnage in the city’s Gulshan café as well the recent militant incidents in the country,” he said, adding he (Marzan) is a Bangladesh national.He said Marjan took the assailants to the café Holey Artisan in the Gulshan area on July 1. When the attackers stormed the café, he left the spot immediately. Monirul Islam, also the chief of DMP’s specialised Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit said all the photos taken by the militants during the Holey Artisan attack were sent to Marjan.”During the dreadful carnage in the city’s Gulshan café, Marjan had been staying at Kalyanpur in the capital and he had a continuous communication with the assailants, Tamim and Zia,” he said. According to police, Tamim “masterminded” the Gulshan and Sholakia attacks, while sacked army official Ziaul had a hand in the targeted killings.On August 2, police declared Taka 20 lakh as bounty each for helping the law enforcers to arrest Tamim and Zia. They had also plotted to launch another deadly terror attack at anywhere anytime in the city by the militants gunned down in Kalyanpur during raid. Earlier, Times of India in its report said that at least five JMB terrorists, whose names appear in the latest list handed over by Rapid Action Batallion to Indian authorities, suspected to have sneaked into India.These include Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury from Sylhet, a Canadian expatriate who is believed to be the coordinator of Islamic State in Bangladesh.According to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors global terror activities, IS claimed responsibility for the attack. The government, however, says there is no IS presence in Bangladesh.After a week of the deadly attack, when people were celebrating the Eid-ul-Fitr festival with panic and fear, terrors again launched attack a police checkpoint near the Sholakia Eid congregation in Kishoreganj, killing two police officials and a local on July 7.Meanwhile, the members of CTTC unit foiled another plot of a suicide squad who had a massive plan to launch a deadly terror attack in the city by blowing themselves up. “We have nabbed five members of a suicide squad from the city’s Mirpur area on Thursday night. They are members of the banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). They had wanted to a launch terror attack by blowing themselves up,” Monirul Islam said. They have been identified as Atiqur Rahman alias IT Atique, Abdul Karim Bulbul alias Dr Bulbul, Abul Kalam Azad, Matiur Rahman and Shahinur Rahman Himel alias Tarek.Acting on a tip off, a special squad of CTTC team raided the Technical Intersection area at about 9:00 pm on Thursday and arrested the five JMB members along with 25 detonators, 825 grams of gel from their possessions”We had obtained information that a suicide squad is now staying in the city. They came from the country’s northern region in a bid to launch a massive suicide attack in the city,” CTTC chief said. When asked Monirul Islam said some inactive members of JMB and some other JMB members who are not followers of its incumbent detained ameer Maulana Saidur Rahman, formed the militant group ‘New JMB’. “We have already extracted some important information from the arrested JMB men during initial quizzing. And these information will help us to investigate the Gulshan and Kalyanpur incidents,” he said.He said that police came to know four other members of the group-Nannu, Sajib, Imran and Gipsy and they also stayed in the capital.”They also came from the Northern region but managed a good escape from the city,’ Monirul Islam said.
