Bangladesh Police have announced cash rewards for two people they have identified as the ‘masterminds’ of the terror attacks at a Dhaka cafe and at a Eid congregation in Kishoreganj.
Dismissed army officer Syed Md Ziaul Haque and Canadian-Bangladeshi Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury have been identified as the brains behind the two attacks in early July, which left 25 people killed.
Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque announced Tk 2 million rewards on each of them for information leading to their arrest.
“Identities of those who will provide information will be concealed,” he told a media briefing on Tuesday.
“We have identified Tamim Chowdhury and discharged army officer Zia as the masterminds of the Gulshan, Sholakia and Kalyanpur incidents.”
He said that investigations revealed that Tamim is leading the ‘new JMB.’ “We have also identified the second and third men after Tamim. Efforts are on to arrest them.”
Police chief Haque said that another banned group Ansarullah Bangla Team is also involved in the recent attacks. “Our investigations suggest that discharged army major Zia leads them.”
Law-enforcers are trying to arrest them, he said urging the people to come up with information.
“If anyone helps to arrest them or inform us after detaining them, we will give Tk 2 million reward for each of them.”
The IGP said their arrests will result into a ‘significant curb in militant activities.’
Syed Md Ziaul Haque
In January 2012, the Bangladesh Army told a press conference that a coup bid to topple the Hasina government has been foiled.
It was then revealed that some serving and former army officers with extreme religious views were involved in a conspiracy to capture power.
That is when the role of expatriate businessmen Ishraq Ahmed and Major Zia as the conspirators came up.
Zia came to the spotlight once again amid the targeted killings of bloggers, online activists, secular writers and publishers, foreigners and members of the religious minority in different parts of Bangladesh, including capital Dhaka over the last two years.
The Islamic State and al-Qaeda reportedly claimed the killings.
Bangladesh Police, however, said that banned group Ansarullah Bangla Team, which rebranded itself as Ansar al-Islam Bangladesh, and outlawed Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were behind the murders.
It had also hinted that the dismissed army officer might have joined with Ansar al-Islam Bangladesh.
A Reuters report in June this year quoted police’s counterterrorism unit chief Monirul Islam saying they suspected Zia might be involved with Ansar.
“We have a suspicion that the ex-major is one of their leaders.
“He is in hiding. We know his capability. If he is involved, it is a strength for Ansar-al-Islam,” the report quoted Islam as saying.
Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury
The Canadian-Bangladeshi’s name came up in the list of ten missing people released by law-enforcers after it emerged that Gulshan cafe killers and Sholakia attackers had been reported missing by their families.
Intelligence officials say Tamim is a JMB leader.
International media reports, citing several Islamic State publications, have described him as the coordinator of Middle East-based group’s Bangladesh chapter.
According to reports, the 30-year-old has been missing from Canada since 2013.
Tamim’s family hails from the northeastern Bangladesh district of Sylhet.
His father Shafi Ahmed Chowdhury, who was a mariner, immigrated to Canada in the early 1970s.
IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque told Tuesday’s media briefing that identities of those who will provide information will remain concealed.
Where is Tamim?
Replying a query on his whereabouts, IGP Hoque said that they were not sure whether he is in Bangladesh now. “But he was in the country before the Gulshan attack.”
He said that a ‘new branch’ of JMB is with Tamim and that they have ‘more or less’ identified them.
Police suspect the Canadian-Bangladeshi to be the brain behind the attack at Gulshan’s Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen Restaurant.
He has been also named in the case over the raid at a hideout at Dhaka’s Kalyanpur, when nine suspected militants were killed.
“We have information that Tamim recruited them, briefed them before the attacks,” said the Bangladesh Police chief.
‘The same group’
The IGP told the media that they have identified the masterminds based on information gleaned from those captured alive in the attacks at Gulshan, Sholakia and Kalyanpur.
“It’s clear from the information they gave that the same group were behind the three incidents.”
Investigations into the Gulshan cafe attack revealed operations of militant groups in Bangladesh and the law-enforcers were acting according to facts unearthed after the Sholakia attack, said Hoque.
The Jul 26 raid at Dhaka’s Kalyanpur was conducted on information that militants were planning another attack in the capital.
“We gave them the option to surrender, but they did not go for it. They said they will fight to kill police,” Hoque said on the raid at a Kalyanpur apartment.
Hasanat Karim (in white shirt at the extreme right) is seen leaving with his family before army commandos stormed the Gulshan cafe.
Hasanat Karim ‘still a suspect’
The role of former North South University teacher Hasanat Karim, who was one of the hostages released from the cafe under siege before army commandos stormed in, is still not clear, said the police chief.
“His background and his behaviour on that day inside the cafe evoked suspicion. We are trying to gather concrete evidence against him.
“We can take him in custody whenever it’s necessary,” said Hoque.
All of the 32 rescued hostages have been released after debriefing, except Karim and Tahmid Hasib Khan, who studies in Canada and was spending vacation in Dhaka.
Source: Bd news24
