Militants escape: A 6-year-old case now in limelight
A terrorism case filed years back against some Ansar Al Islam operatives has come to the fore again after the November 20 snatching of two death-row convicts from police custody.
The case filed with Mohammadpur Police Station on February 21, 2016 was an "eye-opener" for the counterterrorism officials who got an idea of the outfit's operational wing, trainers and trainees throughout the investigation.
Around 20 people were named in the charge sheet submitted to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM) Court on July 8, 2021 and all of them were found to have taken part in several targeted killings as members of the operational wing of the outfit.
The charge sheet exposed the training centre of Ansar Al Islam and its three batches. Militants were trained on improvised explosive devices (IEDS) for two months at the training centre, set up at a house located in Mohammadpur, investigators found.
According to the charge sheet, Syed Ziaul Hoque alias Major (sacked) Zia was the key person behind the training centre. He used to run it along with two outfit leaders -- Shaheen Alam and Shahalam alias Salauddin.
Shaheen and Shahalam are in jail but Zia is on the run.
Zia, the mastermind of six targeted killings of bloggers and freethinkers, was also behind the plan to whisk away two convicted militants from police custody on November 20, officials said on condition of anonymity.
Of the two escaped militants, Moinul Hasan Shamim took training in the second batch and Abu Siddiq Sohel in the third batch at Zia's Mohammadpur training centre.
Two other charge-sheeted accused -- Edi Amin and Mehedi Hasan Omi were -- out on the bail in the 2016 terrorism case.
Amin surrendered to a Dhaka court and Mehedi was arrested in the case filed with Kotwali Police Station over the November 20 incident. Both played the role of coordinator and planner behind the snatching of the two militants, investigators say.
The charge sheet in the 2016 case mentioned names of three top trainers of the outfit -- Ayman alias Moshiur Rahman, Tanvir alias Samad and Omar Faruq.
Of them, Ayman is the currently military wing chief of Ansar Al Islam, who led the snatching of militants, says CTTC officials.
Tanvir is an expert on IED and Faruq on theoretical issues, they said.
All three trainers are now on the run.
On November 20, militants tried to snatch away two other militants -- Abdus Sabur and Arafat. But police managed to prevent it..
Interestingly, both of them were also named in the charge sheet of the Mohammadpur case -- Sabur took training in the first batch and Arafat in the second batch at Zia's training centre.
These two are in jail now.
Ahamedul Islam, an additional deputy commissioner of CTTC unit, has told The Daily Star today that they got details about Ansar Al Islam by investigating the case.
"We got a brief idea of the outfit members and leadership from the case," he added.
The court framed the charges against the accused on November 20, minutes before the escape of the two militants, and fixed January 5 for starting the trial, according to court sources.