A buffer cell of Islamist fanatics murdered blogger Oyasiqur Rahman Babu and had been planned at least 15 days prior, detectives said yesterday.
Islamist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, had used similar buffers, that they call “sleeper cell”, for murdering Avijit Roy, another liberal blogger with atheist views, on February 27.
“Five members of the sleeper cell were specially training in the last 15 days at a rented house in Dhaka’s Jatrabari area,” said Monirul Islam, DMP joint commissioner and chief of the Detective Branch.
They suspect that Ansarullah leader Redwanul Azad Rana, who coordinates a number of sleeper cells, masterminded the attack on Oyasiqur. Police recently announced Tk5 lakh bounty for the arrest of Rana.
The sleeper cells are managed by one field commander who recruits, trains and indoctrinates suitable candidates to carry out their plots. The cell members can only name that field commander and it becomes impossible to connect these plots to the larger organisation or its leadership.
Former North South University student Rana is also a prime suspect in Avijit Roy’s murder and named in the charge sheet for the murder of blogger Ahmed Rajeeb Haider.
Ansarullah and the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir complement each other in turning Bangladesh into a theocratic Islamic state. Detectives say top leaders of these two outfits along with those of Huji and JMB, both also banned, decided at a meeting in Kashimpur jail last year to collaborate in furthering their common agenda of Islamising Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the Oyasiqur murder case was transferred to the Detective Branch from from Tejgaon industrial police yesterday.
It was the first day of eight-day remand of the two accused – Zikrullah and Ariful – who were caught fleeing Oyasiqur’s murder scene on Monday morning. Another accomplice, Abu Taher, managed to flee when locals gave chase.
Ansarullah has a number of “sleeper cells” and both the persons in custody were members of one such group.
Sleeper cells are like cut-outs used to keep the outfit’s leaders from incriminating themselves. The top leaders delegate responsibility of an operation to a field-level commander.
The DB chief said in Oyasiqur’s case, the cell chief was “Masum,” who coordinated and planned the whole mission.
Monirul, however, said it could be his fake name and suspect that the coordinator was actually Rana. He coordinates of a number of cells, he added.
“We are now analysing Arif’s phone details to find links to previous murders, especially the attack on Avijit,” the DB chief said.
Detectives say the duo gave some new information during interrogation.
Both affiliated with Hefazat
Monirul yesterday said Zikrullah was a student of Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Moinul Islam Madrasa in Hathazari, Chittagong. Arif had been a student of the same madrasa and later became a student of Mirpur Darul Ulum Madrasa.
The Hathazari madrasa is run by Hefazat-e-Islam, a radical Islamist platform comprising teachers and students of Qawmi madrasas, and leaders of Islamist parties in the 20-party alliance. The group created much hype in early 2013 with a mass demonstration in Dhaka’s Motijheel demanding death penalty for “atheist bloggers” participating in the Shahbagh movement against war criminals.
Police say Arif was arrested in September 2012 from Raypura of Narsingdi while training in a militant camp. He is accused in a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Securing bail, he took shelter in Jatrabari and later became an active supporter of Ansarullah chief Jashim Uddin Rahmani, now in jail facing murder charges as an instigator.
Zikrullah joined Ansarullah through Arif, Monirul added.
After the arrests, detectives have raided a number of places to find their leaders and have so far seized a mobile phone belonging to Arif from a mosque in Jatrabari.
Quoting the arrestees, police earlier said the trio had met for the first time on Sunday at Hatirjheel and was directed to kill Oyasiqur by their spiritual leader Masum. Zikrullah then said he had come to Dhaka from Chittagong on Saturday.
But Monirul yesterday said the arrestees had been trained along with three others at a mess in Jatrabari. One of them, Saiful Islam, was arrested by Jatrabari police just a week ago with firearms and machetes.
“The two arrestees also told us that they carried machetes with them for five days before killing Oyasiqur to get habituated. They also visited Begunbari several times during that time,” the DB chief said.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
