Trace and punish the masterminds

Seeing the shocking end of his life, the family of Shazad Rouf Arko is now searching for the answer to the most obvious question -- how could it all happen?  

They cannot believe that a boy once so “liberal and fun-loving” can end up being a militant.

"Who are the masterminds targeting these vulnerable, emotionally distressed liberal-minded kids?" asked his sister Anusha Rouf in a text message to this correspondent.

Shazad, 24, is one of the nine militants killed in a gunfight with law enforcers early on Tuesday at a hideout in the capital's Kalyanpur.

He left his Bashundhara home about six months ago and had been missing since.

Family members said they first spotted changes in his behaviour after the death of his mother about six years ago, when he was in his teens. He used to miss her greatly.

“Then, I saw him happy and content and he started going to mosques and found new friends,” said a family member, asking anonymity.

One of his cousins used to be in the mosque and introduced him to the new friends.

“He stopped sharing much with me and became religious [gradually],” the family member added. 

Relatives were happy to see him so happy and strong, religious and good in his school all at once. He used to care for the elderly relatives, family members said.

“We all thought whatever is happening is a very good change; little did we know that the cousin and some of those new friends are actually so stupid that they have been manipulated,” said one relative.

Shazad, who left his home on February 3, was a co-accused with his cousin Ahmed Shammur Raihan alias Chiller in a terrorism case filed with Shahbagh Police Station days before he went missing.

On April 19, Shammur came out of jail on bail.

“Who are those inhumane creatures who hunt down the kids and make them so happy and content that they forget about their families and their loved ones?” the relative asked.

"We do not support what he did. The authorities should bring the masterminds to book so that they could not misguide youths anymore,” said another. 

The demand for punishment of these masterminds is also being voiced by other families who lost their kids, brainwashed to take up arms in the name of jihad.

Going through the Facebook pages of Shazad's relatives, it was seen that he used to be a fun-loving by and used to participate in family programmes. 

His LinkedIn profile shows he got top grades in schools and went on to work at a multinational company.

Shazad's family members are US citizens. His father is a "millionaire" who supplies crowd-control gadgets and defence products to security forces in Bangladesh. His grandfather was a top defence official, the Telegraph of India reported.