Police contradict Rab claim over Neo JMB chief

Police yesterday contradicted Rab's claim that Sarwar Jahan, who died during a Rab raid, was “Neo JMB” chief Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, raising serious questions about intelligence gathering on militants and investigations into terror cases.

Monirul Islam, chief of DMP's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime that conducted several anti-militancy drives after the July 1 Gulshan café attack, yesterday said Abdur Rahman alias Sarwar Jahan was a third- tier leader of the outfit.

His remarks came less than a week after Rab Director General Benazir Ahmed, citing documents they seized during a raid at Sarwar's Ashulia house, claimed that Sarwar is in fact Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, the chief of “Neo JMB”.

Law enforcers claim that “Neo JMB” is responsible for the recent spate of terror attacks, including the Dhaka siege, in the country.

But such conflicting claims by the chiefs of two units over the identity of the chief of the militant group will erode people's trust in law enforcers and their anti-terror drives, some law enforcers said.

The news of Hanif's death gave people some confidence. But the new claim means the so-called Neo JMB chief is still alive and would surely try to strike, they said, adding that a lack of coordination between police and Rab surfaced again through the contradictory claims.

“Such conflicting claims by the two law enforcement agencies would only draw criticisms,” said Nur Khan, executive director (acting) of rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra.

Nur, who researches militancy, added that it was already evident on social media that the general public was skeptical about law enforcers' accounts of anti-militancy operations. The latest claim and counter-claim would fuel that skepticism further.

“We have information that Abdur Rahman's [Sarwar] position was below the deputies of Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury,” Monirul told reporters at the DMP Media Centre. 

According to Rab, Sarwar jumped to death while trying to flee from a building during a raid in Ashulia on October 8.

Police initially suspected Tamim to be the “Neo-JMB” leader Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif and the mastermind of Gulshan attack, in which 20 hostages, 17 of them foreigners, were killed.

After the August 27 raid in Narayanganj, they came to know that Tamim was the military commander who was also known in the organisation as Abu Dujanah. Tamim and two others were killed in the raid and police seized some “important documents” from there.

Replying to a query about Rab's claim that Sarwar was the chief of “Neo JMB,” Monirul said they had no such information.

“We will consider it if any information is obtained through a DNA test,” he added. 

On whether Tamim and Sarwar spoke on the phone during the Narayanganj raid as Rab claimed, Monirul said as the leader of “Neo JMB” Tamim used to communicate with immediate lower-tier leaders.

“Tamim possibly had little direct contact with a leader like Rahman [Sarwar],” he said, adding the two might have met during gatherings.

On Friday's briefing, the Rab chief showed reporters a “correspondence” between Tamim and Sarwar that took place from 2:23am to 3:39am on August 27. Through the text messages Tamim informed Sarwar after police seized their den in Narayanganj and sought his guidelines about their next course of action.

Monirul yesterday said officials of the CTTC unit cordoned off the Narayanganj den around 6:00am.

“There was no siege before that. The CTTC did not lay any siege [before that], some other agency or unit might have encircled the area.

“So he [Tamim] did not get any chance to communicate for a long time. We have evidence that he communicated with Tanvir Kadri [who “killed” himself during Azimpur raid on September 10] and Major Jahid [who was killed in a raid on September 2] at the time.”

TAVELLA MURDER CASE

During Friday's briefing, the Rab chief also claimed documents recovered from several “Neo JMB” dens show that that Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was shot dead by the militant group.

But Monirul claimed that investigators filed the charge sheet based on evidence.

“The investigation was done with an utmost importance by an investigating official who was assisted by a team of professionals,” he said.

The charge sheet named only those whose involvement was found during investigation, he added.

“We investigate criminal cases on the basis of evidence. There is no scope of creative writing in probe reports,” he added.     

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against seven people, including BNP leader MA Quayum and his brother Abdul Matin in the Tavella murder case.

Matin and four others, who are now in jail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court read out the charges against them.

Tavella, 50, was killed in Dhaka's Gulshan Diplomatic Zone on September 28 last year. He was the project manager of Profitable Opportunities for Food Security, a project of Netherlands-based organisation ICCO Cooperation.

Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan, a Supreme Court lawyer and editor of Dhaka Law Reports, told The Daily Star that although Rab's claim about Tavella murder had no judicial value, it might spark a debate over the trial proceedings.

The court will hold trial on the basis of the report submitted by the investigation officer, he said.

Now the investigating officer may conduct further probe with the court's permission to avoid it, Khurshid said, adding that the court can also direct the IO to probe the case further.