Went missing from Bogra a year ago

They were three college friends close to each other. On the morning of July 26 last year, they all went missing from Bogra.

Of them, Masud Rana was arrested last year on charges of killing a police official while another, Moyminul Islam Shihab, was held about two months ago for possessing explosives. Both of them are now in jail, police said. 

The name of the third friend surfaced yesterday after the police action in Kalyanpur, killing nine suspected militants.

He is Rakibul Hasan alias Rigan of Bogra Sadar who, police claim, is a militant.

He sustained bullet injuries during the police operation early hours yesterday. Before hit by bullets, he jumped from the building and broke his legs.

Police took him in their custody and he is now taking treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

The 19-year-old claimed himself to be a member of Islamic State, the terror group that controls a large territory in Iraq and Syria, police and DMCH sources said. 

Son of late businessman Rezaul Karim and Rokeya Akhter of Zamilnagar area of Bogra town, Hasan left home on July 26 last year to attend class at Retina Coaching Centre in the town, said police and his mother.

Retina is known to be a Shibir-run coaching centre for medical students. Shibir is the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami.

However, when he did not return home, his mother, a senior medical assistant of Bijrul Union Health Complex under Nandigram upazila of the district, filed a general diary the next day to report that he was missing.

According to the GD, Hasan passed SSC from Karotoa Multimedia School and College in 2013 and HSC from Government Shah Sultan College in 2015.

The family looked for him in various places, finding his phone switched off, she said in the GD.

After his detention, when he said he was from Bogra, police took his mother and sister to the local police station to confirm his identity, which they did.

They were later released, Abul Bashar, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station, told The Daily Star.

Talking to the BBC Bangla yesterday, his mother said: “My son can't take the path willingly unless he was brainwashed. My son can't take a wrong path willingly.”

HASAN: A COOK?

When he was taken to DMCH around 3:00am yesterday, he initially said he used to cook for the alleged militants killed in the raid, police and DMCH sources said.

When police questioned him further, he said they all belonged to IS.

Police then asked him to “spell” IS. He then elaborated it, saying: “Islamic State.”

MASUD AND SHIHAB IN JAIL

All the three friends were students of Government Shah Sultan College in Bogra, said Rokeya, Hasan's mother.

For about one year, Shihab and his mother and sister lived in the house of Hasan as tenants.

Masud used to live in a mess in Puran Bogra area.

Shihab and his family left the house some six months before Hasan went missing. Later, they learnt that both Shihab and Masud had also gone missing on same day, Rokeya said.

Md Monnaf, a sub-inspector of Bogra Sadar Police Station and also the investigation officer of the GD filed by Hasan's mother, told The Daily Star yesterday that during investigation, he came to know that the three had gone missing on same day.

Monnaf said later they learnt that Masud Rana, of Keshalata village under Adamdighi upazila in Bogra, was arrested from Dhaka in connection with the killing of Assistant Sub-Inspector Ibrahim Mollah.

Ibrahim was stabbed to death in the capital's Gabtoli on October 22 last year. Masud had accompanied the alleged killer, Kamal, and was caught red-handed from spot, according to previous reports of The Daily Star.

Law enforcers then told this paper that Masud was a Shibir activist of Bogra's Adamdighi upazila.

Selimuzzaman, OC of Darussalam Police Station in the capital, said the case was filed with their station but detectives investigated the case and already pressed charge in the case. “As far as I know, Masud Rana is an accused in the charge sheet and is now in jail.”

Monnaf said Moyminul, of Swajankuri village of Bogra's Dupchanchia Upazila, was arrested in connection with an explosives case filed under Sherpur Police Station of the district.

Contacted, Mizanur Rahman, an inspector of the station and investigation officer of Shihab's case, said they arrested him about two months ago in a case filed on April 4 for possessing explosives and was now in jail.

Like the three friends, most of those who carried out two recent attacks --July 1 Gulshan café siege and the Sholakia attack on the Eid day -- had remained missing for several months before the attacks.

[Our Bogra correspondent contributed to this report.]