Identity of Neo JMB Financier: Detectives hit a dead end

Police believe “Neo JMB financier Abdur Rahman”, who jumped to his death from a building during a Rab raid on Saturday, was either using a fake passport or had used a fake address in his travel document.

When Satkhira police yesterday went to verify his identity, with information from the passport found in the Ashulia militants' hideout on Saturday, they found that nobody there knows Abdur Rahman.

Officer-in-Charge Firoz Hossain Mollah of Satkhira Sadar Police Station said the names of his father and mother were mentioned as Abdullah and Rizia Khatun in the passport issued on September 10, 2014.

His daughter's name was mentioned as Shahnaz Parveen and his date of birth was June 22, 1986. His permanent address was in Kushkhali of Satkhira Sadar.

“We did not find anyone named Abdur Rahman in that address,” the OC told our Satkhira correspondent.

Contacted Rab-4 Commanding Officer Khandaker Lutful Kabir said they had sent the passport number to the Department of Passport for verification.

Abdur Rahman, identified by Rab as Nazmul Haque with Babu and Moynul as aliases, died after he jumped off a five-storey building during a raid by Rapid Action Battalion in Savar's Ashulia.

Also known as Ainul, he was the key financier of “Neo JMB” and provided funds for some recent terror attacks, sources claimed.

The elite force members are now trying to arrest two of his close associates named Sohel and Milon.

They last night filed two cases against Abdur Rahman's wife Shanaz Akter, 29, who was detained during the raid.

'SUICIDE ATTACKER' DEAD?

Police suspect that at least one of the seven militants killed during Gazipur's Patartek raid on Saturday was trained for suicide attacks, said an investigator.

The deceased was initially identified as Ibrahim, 19, a resident of Mogholtuli in Old Dhaka. He had gone missing on August 8.

The next day, his family filed a general diary with Bangshal Police Station.

“Based on the documents found at the spot, we are sure that the youth had his trainings done by this time and was prepared for suicide attacks,” said an official of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police wishing anonymity.

Apart from Ibrahim and Faridul Islam Akash, the operational commander of Dhaka region's “Neo JMB”, police suspect that two more slain militants might be “Neo JMB” members -- Hafez Sanaullah alias Sanwar and the one the organisation calls “the Mechanic”.

The official said another two killed during the raid might be two youths who had gone missing from their Mirpur homes in August.

Sanwar Hossain, an additional commissioner of the CTTC, told The Daily Star that they were verifying the information on their identities. 

Their identities would be confirmed through the matching of their finger prints with the database of NID cards and DNA cross match with their family members, he added.

The CTTC officials said except Akash, the dead militants were newly recruited and that they were preparing for an attack.

“Marjan and Akash were the most reliable hands of slain JMB coordinator Tamin Ahmed Chowdhury,” said a CTTC official.

Tamim had assigned Akash to carry out the attack on the Sholakia Eid congregation and Marjan for the Gulshan café attack.

Akash was using the Patartek hideout as a training centre for new recruits and a shelter for the already trained. 

Asked why they were hiding in areas close to the capital and not in the capital, an official said landlords do not usually take NID card info of tenants or any identification documents, which is mandatory in DMP areas. Their movement and carrying arms and ammunition was also less risky in those areas.

CASES FILED

Two cases were filed with Joydevpur Police Station yesterday in connection with Saturday's raids.

Police filed a case accusing caretaker Osman Gani and the seven deceased in Patartek of attacking policemen, said Officer-in-Charge Khandaker Rezaul Hasan Reza.

Mahiul Islam, company commander of Rab-1 in Gazipur, said Rab filed a separate case with the police station against the two deceased and three to four unnamed people in connection with the Lebubagan raid.

Meanwhile, autopsies of nine bodies were conducted at Shaheed Tajuddin Medical College morgue yesterday, said morgue sources.

Sources at the hospital, where the bodies were sent Saturday evening, said that no one had claimed those.

In its news portal, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has requested citizens to inform the DMP the actual identities of the seven suspected militants killed at Noagaon Patartek in Gazipur on Saturday. It requested people to inbox the information on the DMP's Facebook page, hello city apps or directly provide it to Gazipur police. 

Autopsies on two more bodies of suspected militants, killed in a raid in Tangail on Saturday, were done at the Tangail Medical College Hospital yesterday.

Rab sources said they were readying a case for filing in connection with the Tangail raid.

AKASH HAD FAMILY RADICALISED

Faridul Islam Akash, who hails from West Boraitola of Kazipur upazila of Sirajganj, assigned “Neo JMB” member Abu Talha to radicalise his mother, two sisters and neighbour Rajia Khatun, sources said.

He had joined “Neo JMB” through the man, police claimed.

Sirajganj police arrested Akash's mother Fulera Khatun, 45, his sisters Shakila Khatun, 18, and Salma Khatun, 16, and neighbour Rajia Khatun, 35, on September 5.

Police had then said the four females were waiting for instruction from the organisation high command to take part in suicide attacks, reports our correspondent in Pabna.

Police said Akash, believed to be a top IT expert of the organisation, became a key leader after the killing of Tamim and other “Neo-JMB” leaders.

Akash, who had been missing for a year, was accused in a case filed with Ullapara Police Station for reorganising JMB last year.

Akash completed SSC from Gandhail High School of Kazipur upazila in 2010. Two years ago, he obtained a diploma from the computer science department of Sirajganj Polytechnique Institute, sources said.

“We didn't get [find information about] his involvement in politics when he was the student in the institute. He might have joined the banned Islamist group after completing his studies here.” Engineer Abdul Hannan, principal of Sirajganj Polytechnic Institute told The Daily Star over phone.