Parents demand punishment of Marzan's misdeeds
Parents and family members of militant Nurul Islam alias Marzan, who was killed in Dhaka gunfight early today, demanded exemplary punishment of those who were behind Marzan's involvement in militant activities.
"My son Marzan, 35, committed heinous crimes . . . He must suffer for his misdeeds. I further demand the trial of those who made my son a militant," Nijam Uddin, father of Marzan, told BSS today soon after he heard the news of his son's murder in a gunfight with police.
He said, "We have no ability to bring the body here from Dhaka but if the government returned it to me, I will complete burial ceremony here."
'Marzan was a brilliant student, but what did he do? Who made him Jongi (militant) . . . ?" Nijam told this weeping at his Afuria village home this afternoon.
Mother Salma Khatun in an emotion-chocked voice told our correspondent that her son did not do any politics but how he was involved in that wicked acts they did not know even.
"But I urge the government to return my son's wife and the minor child" she added.
Superintendent of Police (SP) of Pabna district Jihadul Kabir said Marzan left his home in January last year with his wife.
He passed Dakhil and Alim from Pabna Alia Madrasa and later got admission into Arabic Department of Chittagong University from where he was involved in the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an outlawed militant organisation.
Marzan, one of the masterminds of last year's Gulshan Holey Artisan Bakery attack and leader of Neo-Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and his accomplice Saddam were killed in a gunfight with police in Beribadh area of Mohammadpur in the capital early today.
Police said he was a close aide of Bangladeshi origin Canadian citizen Tamim Chowdhury. Marzan married to Arefin Prioty in January last year and subsequently they went missing. Later, detectives arrested his wife along with their kid from Azimpur militant hideout on September 11, last year.
They said during the Gulshan attack, Marjan was staying at Kalyanpur in the capital and maintained communication with the attackers and their masterminds. Twenty hostages were brutally killed during the terrorist attack in Gulshan cafe last year before the Army-led commandoes stormed the cafe early next morning.
Of the civilian victims, nine were Italian citizens, seven Japanese, one Indian, two Bangladeshis and one Bangladeshi-born US citizen. Besides, two senior police officers -- Banani Police Station officer-in-charge Salauddin Ahmed Khan and Detective Branch assistant commissioner Robiul Islam -- were killed when they tried to rescue the hostages.
However, six terrorists were killed and one was held in the army-led rescue operation. Thirteen hostages including women and children were also rescued during the operation.
So far, police have hunted down and killed at least 40 militants linked to the cafe attack, including mastermind Tamim Chowdhury.