Rab publishes 261 missing youths' info

Amid reports about youths having left home to join militancy, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) last night published a list of 261 missing ones from 39 districts of the country.

Asking people to contact nearby Rab office if they have any information about those on the list, the elite crime buster also published photos of 50.

One of them is Ibrahim Hasan Khan, who according to Rab, has been missing since February 13, 2015 after posting something in Arabic language on a social media platform.

According to a post by the Facebook account in his name, Ibrahim on June 14, 2015 went to Holey Artisan Bakery, where armed militants butchered 20 hostages, including foreigners, on July 1 this year. 

Of the missing youths, 74 are from Dhaka district, 32 from Chittagong, 29 from Jhenidah, 14 from Jessore, nine from Feni, nine from Rangpur, eight from Kishoreganj, six from Chandpur, six from Noakhali, four from Cox's Bazar and four from Chapainawabganj.

Director of Rab's Legal and Media Wing Mufti Mahmud Khan said the list has been prepared as per the directives of the government.

It can be found on Rab's official Facebook page.

Also yesterday, law enforcers released CCTV footage of an intersection near Holey Artisan Bakery, marking four people in the video as suspects in the July 1 terror attack.

They have sought people's help in identifying the suspects, who were seen near the bakery on the night of the attack.

The footage has been posted on Facebook pages of Rab and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) as well as on the DMP media site.

The four, who include a female, were shown in red circles.  

The start point of the 1:19-minute video is 8:42pm on July 1. It is a compilation of images from several cameras installed at the intersection of Road 79 and 75.

The person marked as suspect-1 could be aged 25 to 30. Wearing pants and a shirt with a black stripe on the shoulder, he was seen roaming aimlessly on the road at 8:42pm.

At 8:46am, he got down from a silver colour car in the middle of the road and crossed it hurriedly. Around seven minutes later, he was seen walking on a footpath.

Cops are looking for the car, which left immediately after dropping suspct-1.

Suspect-2, another youth wearing black shirt and pants, was seen walking on a footpath at 8:46pm. Three minutes later, he met suspect-3, who looked older than the other two.

Suspct-3 was seen talking over mobile phone with someone.

The female suspect or suspect-4 is seen walking on a footpath at 8:43pm and on the road 14 minutes later.

Releasing the video, Rab and counterterrorism unit of DMP asked people to contact law enforcers if they have any information about these individuals.

An official of the counterterrorism unit said they have collected a huge number of CCTV clips and found the movement of these four individuals highly suspicious.

A Rab official preferring anonymity said the suspects might have been members of the backup team for the Gulshan killing mission.

On July 1, armed militants held hostage foreign and local diners at Holey Artisan Bakery and killed 20 people -- nine Italian, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one Bangladesh-born US citizen. 

They also hurled bombs and killed two police officers as cops tried to end the siege soon after it began around 8:40pm.

The 11-hour hostage situation ended when army-led commandos stormed the café in the high-security diplomatic zone around 8:00am on July 2, killing “six” suspected militants.

Law enforcers believe it was not possible only for the gunmen to carry out the massive atrocities. There were some other teams nearby who were keeping watch outside and passing information to the militants inside.