Teen boy talks of radical boy
On several occasions, Jony Islam, a 14-year-old local vegetable vendor, had visited the house raided by law enforcers at Ashkona in Dhaka yesterday.
Talking to reporters while the anti-militancy drive was still underway, he claimed that he knew two boys who lived in that house, and one of them had tried to convince him to join their so-called Jihad but he turned the proposal down.
Jony, who is from Mahasthangarh of Bogra, came to Dhaka a few years ago and had been living with his mother and two siblings in Ashkona of Dakshin Khan area since then.
He met the two boys some four to five months ago.
“One of them was Shaheed. He was around 14 years old. The other one was Obaidul. He was 10. They used to come to my shop to buy vegetables. Sometimes, I used to visit their home to take my dues,” he said.
Jony said sometimes, he also used to play badminton and cricket with them on their rooftop and sometimes, Shaheed used to sing “Jihadi songs”.
A day before the Victory Day on December 16, Jony said, Shaheed requested him to join jihad and kill nonbelievers. “But, I rejected [his proposal]. After that, I never went to that house.”
On the Victory Day when Jony went to a local mosque to say Jumma prayers, he also saw Shaheed and Obaidul there.
“One day, I had seen a pistol with Shaheed but I thought it was a toy.”
Replying to a query, Jony said two men -- aged around 25 and 35 -- used to come to Shaheed's house in a white car. One of them had a beard.
Apart from the two boys, a woman and a man also used to live in that house, he said.
One day, Jony heard a woman rebuking Shaheed for bringing him to their living room.
Asked why he did not go to police earlier, he said, “I did not realise that they were militants.”
Later, members of the counter-terrorism unit of the police took Jony with them for interrogation.
Talking to The Daily Star, a member of the unit said they believe Shaheed is actually
Asif Kaderi, who was killed during the drive yesterday.
Asif was the son of Tanvir Kaderi, a militant who committed suicide to avoid arrest during an anti-militancy drive on September 10. His mother -- Abedatul Fatema alias Khadiza -- sustained injuries and was arrested along with her son Tahrim Qaderi alias Russell, added the member.
Comments