Irked by Nayeem's bigotry, villagers drove him out
He used to call people 'Kafir' or infidels if they didn't offer prayers regularly and say that they would be thrown into hell after death.
Abu Hakim Nayeem, one of the nine militants killed in Tuesday's operation in the capital's Kalyanpur, was ill-tempered and would often become furious.
He misbehaved with others and delivered radical speeches on religion.
“Irked by his behaviour, locals at one stage drove him out of the area around two years ago. After that, we didn't see him in this locality,” said Rafiqul Islam, chairman of Jhaoil union parishad in Tangail's Gopalpur upazila, where Nayeem's ancestral home is located.
Law enforcers yesterday raided his ancestral home and seized some documents that show Nayeem lived in Libya in 2009 and used to send money to his wife in Bangladesh.
The Daily Star correspondents talked to police, his relatives and colleagues, and locals to know about him.
According to his family members and police, he was born at his ancestral home.
His national identity card shows he was born in 1983. He mentioned a place in Patuakhali's Kalapara upazila as his permanent address.
Quoting Nayeem's relatives and locals, Gopalpur police said his father died when he was four. Later, his mother Halima Khatun left the village and went to his maternal grandfather's house in Jamalpur. Nayeem was then admitted to a madrasa there.
After completing education at the madrasa, he married his cousin Sakhina Khatun in 2000, according to police.
In 2003, he started working in Kuakata as a day labourer at “Sagor Nir Project” of a real estate company and worked there till 2007, said Altaf Hossain, the then assistant manager of the project.
“As far as I can recall, Nayeem was a pious man. He used to talk less and offer prayers regularly,” Altaf told The Daily Star.
In Kuakata, Nayeem, along with his wife and two daughters, lived in a rented house owned by Anwar Hossain Sharif.
“He left my house in 2007,” Anwar told this newspaper.
Sagor Mollah, councillor of Kuakata municipality, said Nayeem was listed as a voter of ward-4 in the municipality. His voter number was 781103000369 and national ID card number was 7816647592243.
According to information on the voters' database, Nayeem had completed higher secondary education, according to local election office.
In 2012, Nayeem returned to his ancestral village and set up a 'Maktab', said locals.
In 2014, he was driven away from the village as he used to speak and behave like a radical, said Solaiman Miah, an inhabitant in the area.
Talking to The Daily Star, Nayeem's uncle Mohammad Suruzzaman said they had no communication with him for the last few years and heard the news of his death from law enforcers on Thursday.
Wishing anonymity, a policeman in Gopalpur said he learnt that Nayeem had worked at a fish feed mill in Bhaluka upazila of Mymensingh about a year ago.
The Daily Star correspondent visited Nayeem's father-in-law's house at Chapaid village in Madhupur upazila yesterday noon and found the house empty.
One of Nayeem's relatives said Nayeem visited his house at Hironbazar village of Modhupur upazila around two months ago.
Contacted, Mahbub Alam, superintendent of police in Tangail, said law enforcers are yet to trace Nayeem's wife Sakina.
“We are investigating the matter and checking whether any of Nayeem's relatives or any other person in this area is involved in militancy,” he added.
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