While probing the cases, they leave alone the patrons and cohorts of Islamist terrors in political parties, the administration and even in the police, as they have received no government instruction regarding these people, not even to track them down, sources close to the investigators say.

Although the media have exposed the roles and links of several of these godfathers and allies since 2004 and although the government and intelligence agencies know very well who they are and what they do, the country is yet to see any initiative against them.

So, the investigators say, they confine their concentration to working out operation plans to net the militant leaders still at large, leaving it for the government top brass to decide what to do about their party men, who are guardians or comrades of the militants.

The interrogators, too, avoid asking the detained militants about their or their superiors' links with political leaders.

"Since the links are an open secret, they don't feel it very urgent to quiz the arrested militant leaders about that," pointed out a source.

"Sometimes they do ask about such links, but that is only to verify the information they already have."

OVERVIEW OF PATRONISATION, LINKS
At the very beginning, the 2004 launch of the so-called vigilance operation by Siddiqur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai and his men expressly to cleanse the northern region of communist outlaws, there was wide-spread allegations that certain ministers, BNP lawmakers, officials in local administrations and police were backing them.

Although all but one ruling BNP leaders of the Rajshahi region denied any link with Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and its wing Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), BNP lawmaker Abu Hena confirmed and blamed a section of his party colleagues for sponsoring the Islamist extremists.

Abu Hena made it clear that it would be impossible for Bangla Bhai to make the rapid rise and open operation without the knowledge and acquiescence of the government, administration and law enforcement agencies.

The exposé cost Hena his party membership on November 24 last year, with the party high command terming his statements anti-organisational.

An investigation by The Daily Star in 2004 found that some ministers, MPs and BNP leaders turned to the JMJB with a view to rout out the communists and avenge the harms including murders of their relatives, friends or neighbours. The failure of the police to contain the operations of the outlawed communist outfits also played a major role in aligning the ruling party members with the JMJB.

The JMJB "cleansing operation" started in certain upazilas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Natore districts following the killing of four relatives and friends of Deputy Minister for Land Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu and other lawmakers by the communists popularly known as Sarbaharas.

Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) operatives killed Bagmara Upazila BNP President Abdul Hamid in November 2003.

Dulu's nephew Sabbir Ahmed Gama was shot to death in Naldanga Upazila of Natore in February 2004, followed by the murder of his aide Wahidul Haq Pakhi in Puthia Upazila of Rajshahi two weeks later.

Durgapur Municipality Ward Commissioner Anwar Hossain, a close associate of BNP Lawmaker from Rajshahi-4 Nadim Mostafa, was slain in March 2004.

Before that, in February, the PBCP Lal Potaka, or red flag, faction publicly distributed a leaflet threatening Dulu, Nadim, and their relatives and aides with death.

Furious at the murders and death threat the desperate BNP leaders unleashed the JMJB fanatics to exterminate the Sarbaharas, and the police were asked to cooperate with Bangla Bhai and his band.

"They [local BNP leaders] supported our drive," JMJB's spiritual leader and JMB supremo Abdur Rahman told The Daily Star in an interview in May 2004. He said they had talked with some local lawmakers over telephone, besides holding meetings with the municipal and union parishad chairmen and members of the region.

A JMJB regional commander said he was present in meeting of Bangla Bhai with a deputy minister on April 10, 2004.

He also told the press that police sometimes in uniform and usually in plainclothes used to guard the JMJB militant camps. The JMJB also received a vehicle of an agriculture ministry directorate, which Bangla Bhai used for two months.

Sources said the Rajshahi and Naogaon police supers at that time used to advise and inform Bangla Bhai over mobile phone.

In his 2005 exposé, BNP MP Abu Hena named Telecommunications Minister Aminul Haque and both the Jamaat-e-Islami cabinet members among the government bigwigs backing the JMB-JMJB fiends.

Besides Dulu and Nadim, the name of Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu also cropped up in his allegations.

Later, at a party meeting in Naogaon, State Minister for Housing and Public Works Alamgir Kabir also said Dulu and Aminul were behind the militant activities.

So, it may appear funny but not strange when Dulu after the August 17 countrywide terror strike told The Daily Star, "I don't think they [JMB] have such a strong network [to synchronise a near-simultaneous bomb explosions in all the districts but one]. Awami League must have done this and used fake leaflets to destroy Bangladesh's image to the world."

Before being banned and going underground, in just four months from April 1 to July 31, 2004, the JMJB killed 22 people, and maimed and injured hundreds of others in the northern districts.

ONLY PROMISES
According to well-placed sources, the police are now mainly focused on hunting down the absconding militants and the interrogators extracting information about the motive for the August 17 serial bomb blasts from the arrestees.

One of the investigators said, "The interrogators are trying to ascertain whether another group was operating behind the militants or assigned them to carry out the bomb attacks from a different motive."

Referring to the law enforcers' argument that they do not have any significant evidence to justify legal actions against the patrons and allies of the militants, Rab chief MA Aziz Sarkar told journalists on Thursday they would try to collect the evidences.

The same day, on the widely reported-accused-alleged ministers-militants entente, State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar told the media, "Action will be taken against anyone found involved with militants and militant activities, no matter whoever he is."