Sholakia was not his first mission
Shafiul Islam, who was caught at the attack scene near Sholakia Eidgah on Thursday, was involved in at least two other targeted killings in Kurigram and Panchagarh, police said yesterday.
He is a charge-sheeted accused in the killing of Hindu priest Jogeswar Dasadhikari in Panchagarh and was involved in the killing of Hossain Ali, a Christian convert in Kurigram, they added.
Benazir Ahmed, director general of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), said Shafiul stood accused in four murder cases, but he gave little details.
Suspected militants slit the throat of Jogeswar, 50, at Sri Sri Shonto Gaurio temple of Shonapota in Debiganj on February 21 and fled the spot firing shots and exploding homemade bombs, which injured two devotees.
On March 22, three bike-riding assailants slit the throat of Hossain Ali, 68, a freedom fighter who had converted to Christianity from Islam in the 1990s.
According to US-based SITE Intelligence which monitors jihadist activities, Islamic State took credit for both the attacks, but the government dismissed the reports saying IS had no presence in Bangladesh.
Police detained bullet-hit Shafiul, also known as Shariful as well as Saiful, 22, from Char Sholakia area, where suspected militants attacked policemen with sharp weapons, guns and bombs on the Eid day. He is from of Raniganj Bazar in Dinajpur.
Another suspect, Jahidul Haque Tanim, 24, of Pashim Tarapasha village in Kishoreganj, was captured following an hour-long gunbattle between law enforcers and the attackers.
Four people -- two police constables, one woman from a nearby house and an alleged attacker -- were killed in the attack.
PANCHAGARH CASE
On June 28, Ayub Ali, investigation officer of Jogeswar murder case, submitted the charge sheet before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court in Kurigram against 10 people, including Shafiul, reports our Thakurgaon correspondent.
According to the charge sheet, Shafiul came to Debiganj on February 20, the day before the killing, and took shelter at the house of Md Rana, a fugitive accused in the case. Rana, of Debiduba village, is a militant.
Shafiul and two other militants went to the temple on a bike around 6:45am on February 21, the charge sheet reads.
The two others are Razibul Islam Mollah, 25, of Kuddra Kustia village in Bogra, and Muhammad Nazrul, 26, of Sonahar Gachpur in Panchagarh.
Nazrul stayed on the bike while Razibul and Shafiul entered the temple. Razibul beheaded the priest with a machete. Then Razibul and Shafiul shot two people who tried to enter the temple hearing screams, and fled the scene, according to the charge sheet.
Ayub Ali, also an inspector of Debiganj Police Station, said: “It is clear that Shafiul was directly involved in the killing.”
Shafiul is also accused in two other cases -- one for explosion and another for possession of illegal arms filed in this connection, said Giasuddin Ahmed, Panchagarh superintendent of police.
KURIGRAM CASE
Mohammad Tabarak Ullah, the Kurigram SP, told The Daily Star that they found evidence of Shafiul's involvement in Hossain Ali's murder.
He said some “eight to ten Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) men” were involved in the killing and that they arrested three of them.
Hasan Firoz, one of the three detainees from Aditmari upazila of Lalmonirhat, gave confessional statement before a magistrate on April 2.
In the statement, he mentioned Shafiul as one of the three attackers.
A Kurigram police team quizzed Shafiul at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, where he was being treated under Rab custody, and “confirmed” his involvement in the killing.
“We will shortly submit a charge sheet naming him in the case,” he said.
The Rab chief said the four murders Shafiul was involved in took place since October last year.
These attacks were carried out mostly in the northern districts, he told reporters at Rab headquarters. He, however, did not specify the murders.
Shafiul's name is different in various cases as he has multiple “organisational names”.
In addition, he faces an arms case filed with Hakimpur Police Station in Dinajpur on June 22, reports our correspondent there.
Police filed the case against him and several others after they recovered arms and ammunition at Hakimpur, said Abdus Sabur, officer-in-charge of the station.
The case was later shifted to the Detective Brach of police, he added.
Meanwhile, a Kishoreganj court yesterday placed Jahidul Haque Tanim, the second suspect in the Sholakia attack, on a 10-day remand, said Morshed Jaman, officer-in-charge (investigation) of Kishoreganj Sadar Police Station.
In an another development, police buried Abir Rahman, the alleged attacker killed during the gunbattle, in Kishoreganj after his family refused to take the body, said Shafiqul Islam, a sub-inspector of Kishoreganj Sadar Police Station.
Earlier, his father told The Daily Star that he would not receive the body of his son, who was a student of North South University.
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