'Youth, who stabbed 2 cops, belongs to JMB'
The youth who stabbed two cops in Godagari upazila Tuesday night is a member of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and is skilled in martial arts, police said yesterday.
Ajimul Islam was arrested in Kella Baroipara village by a team of the counterterrorism unit of the Bogra Detective Branch of police.
Villagers said the 24-year-old was known for his extremist views on religion. He told them that he was an honours student at Rajshahi Government College.
Khurshid Alam, deputy inspector general (Rajshahi range) of police, said they were sure that Ajimul was a JMB operative.
“According to the information gathered so far by law enforcers, he [Ajimul] is a member of a JMB group which is trying to regroup militants in Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj,” the DIG told The Daily Star last night.
He said police, taking Ajimul along, were conducting drives at different places in Rajshahi to arrest the other members of the militant group.
Police, however, could not confirm how he was radicalised.
A top police official in Rajshahi said the members of the militant group communicated with each other using different mobile apps.
The DIG said the Bogra police team traced Ajimul at the village Tuesday night. He stabbed two police constables, but the cops managed to arrest him.
Injured Abdus Salam, 53, and Ismail Hossain, 33, were receiving treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital yesterday.
Wishing anonymity, a police official told this correspondent that the arrestee was skilled in martial arts.
“He managed to stab the policemen even after being caught,” the official added, quoting the DIG as telling some police officials at a meeting at the Rajshahi Police Lines yesterday.
Police have frequently been targeted by militants since October 2015, with members of “Neo JMB” carrying out several terrorist attacks, including at Gulshan cafe and Sholakia of Kishoreganj in July last year and in the capital's Gabtoli when Assistant Sub-Inspector Ibrahim Molllah was stabbed to death at a police check post.
In 2003, the JMB launched its first ever attack on police, killing two law enforcers in Satkhira, said police sources.
The Tuesday night's stabbing of cops took place near the house of Torikul Islam, a farmer in Kella Baroipara village, about 500 yards off the house of Ajimul's stepfather Ataur Rahman in the nearby Bujruk Rajarampur village.
Visiting the spot yesterday afternoon, this correspondent saw bloodstains on the ground in front of Torikul's house.
“I saw an elderly man sitting on the chest of a youth lying on the ground,” said Asma Begum who witnessed the incident as she came out of her house to collect water from a tubewell.
“I will die, but I won't let you go,” she heard the man (constable Salam) shouting.
The man called in someone and told him to handcuff the youth, Asma said.
Another local Rabeya Begum rushed to the scene from her husband's grocery shop, hearing a hue and cry.
“We thought some outsiders attacked a villager, but the plainclothes policemen told us not to move forward,” said Rabeya.
Later, another police team from Godagari went to the spot and arrested Ajimul. The team sent the injured cops to a hospital.
Ataur's house was under lock and key yesterday. Locals said Ataur along with his family members left home hours after Ajimul's arrest.
The arrestee lived in Harishpur village of Chapainawabganj and used to frequent his mother's home, said Masud Alam, a trader in Bujruk Rajarampur village.
The youth argued with villagers twice over offering munajat after the five daily prayers, added Masud. “Villagers have been offering munajat for years and he asked us not to do so.”
Another villager Abdul Alim said Ajimul tried to be the imam of a local mosque, but villagers did not let it happen as he opposed offering munajat.
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