‘Neo JMB Leader' Musa: He covered his tracks to stay off dragnet

Before leaving home for the so-called Jihad, fugitive “Neo JMB” militant Maynul Islam Musa destroyed everything that could link him to his home, so that law enforcers could not track him.

The last time Musa visited his village home at Baghmara in Rajshahi was in early April, just days before he went traceless. He had told people at home that he was going abroad.

He then destroyed all his photos and belongings there.

“His photographs were in our family albums. He cut those out one by one with a pair of scissors and set fire to those. He did not even leave one of his shirts for me before leaving,” said his mother Sufia Akter.

“I do not have anything of my son,” she sighed.

When asked about the reason, Musa told his mother, “Photographs will bring no good but sins.”

Musa went to his in-laws place about 12km from his village home and destroyed all photos and belongings of him there as well, said his sister-in-law Nisha Moni.

According to police, Musa is one of the top leaders of “Neo JMB”, who is trying to reorganise the outfit and carry out a targeted attack.

To cover his tracks, Musa, once an English teacher of Life School in Uttara-13 in Dhaka, destroyed documents and evidence from his Uttara home and the school before becoming traceless, his former colleagues and police said.

He was very active on social media but he removed his friends from his Facebook account and eventually deactivated his account.

“When his involvement in militancy came to light following the killing of Maj (retd) Jahid, I found his phone switched off. I tried to see his Facebook page but did not find it,” one of his former colleagues at the school told The Daily Star preferring anonymity.

Major (retd) Jahid, who was killed in an anti-militancy drive in Mirpur on September 2, and Musa used to live in the same apartment building in Uttara. They had both left their homes almost at the same time.

However, police found and recovered some information about Musa from the documents and computers police seized from the school in mid September.

The evidence allowed law enforcers to track Musa to the Ashkona den on Saturday. Musa managed to evade arrest that day during the counter terrorism unit-led operation codenamed “Ripple-24”.

During the drive, a female militant suspect, Shakira, killed herself by detonating a suicide vest while 14-year-old Afif Kaderi, son of slain militant Tavir Kaderi, was killed in the shootout with police.

Before that, two female militants, Musa's wife Trisha Moni; and Maj (retd) Jahid's widow Jebunnahar Shila, surrendered to police. Musa was then texting them to commit suicide.

MUSA LIED TO ALL

Days before going into hiding, Musa told his mother that he would go to Bahrain to work with one Bahrain expatriate Faisal.

After the death of his father Abul Kalam Azad in December last year, he went to his Buzrukkola village home to take Tk 3 lakh.

However, he told Nisha that the Life School was sending him to Saudi Arabia.

“The school has similar institution in Saudi Arabia and he would be provided with a job there. We are in a hurry as the school authority gave us the offer but we have to collect certain amount of money within a given time,” Nisha quoted Musa as saying.

Mizanur Rahman, principal of the school, told The Daily Star yesterday that they had no branches in or outside the country.

“We, eight people, have set up the school in 2014 investing our savings,” he added. 

Talking to The Daily Star another former colleague of Musa said Musa resigned from school in March saying he would run a coaching centre.

Musa told another former colleague that he would return to his village and do something there.

Preferring anonymity, the former colleague said once a good teacher, Musa became very absent minded and irregular in classes around two to three months prior to his resignation.

“He used to often take leaves for several days, sometimes without notice,” the teacher said, adding that the school authorities warned him about this. 

Another teacher said Musa sometimes discussed news on militant attacks across the world but never spoke in favour of the militants.

“We could not imagine him being involved in militancy,” said another teacher.  

Musa's mother Sufia wants her son to surrender.

He was preparing to sit for BCS exam but suddenly he started talking about going abroad, she said.

The family thought he had gone abroad.

“I feel ashamed. I hate him so much and sometimes I think it would be better if he dies,” said Sufia.

“Yet, I want him to surrender,” she told The Daily Star correspondent when he visited her home.

His sister Kamrun Nahar said, “I hate to introduce him as my brother. It is better he surrenders … the law will decide his fate.”

Kamrun Nahar had given Musa Tk 10,000 selling her ornaments so that Musa could “collect his passport”.