Snatching of militants: Ansar al-Islam men planned it from jail
IO says five members of the banned militant group used secret mobile apps to run operations
The plot to snatch two death-row convicts from the Dhaka court premises in November was planned inside the jail by five members of the banned Ansar al-Islam along with 20-25 others, police said today.
On November 20, the two militants -- Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Samir alias Sifat alias Imran, and Abu Siddiq Sohel alias Sakib alias Sajid alias Shahab – were snatched from police custody and whisked away when they were returning to jail after a hearing in a Dhaka court. Both the convicts are still on the run.
Placing a 15-day remand prayer before the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate court, Sub-Inspector Muhammad Musaddimul Haque, the investigation officer of the case, said all five members were running their organisational activities form jail using secret online apps.
The IO told the court that he got the information from Zakir Hossain alias Ibrahim while interrogating him. Zakir was arrested in a case filed over the militant snatching incident.
The five militants who are involved in the crime are Arafat Rahman, Khairul Islam alias Sifat, Mozammel Hossain, Sheikh Abdullah and Abdur Sabur. All five are in jail.
The IO said the five need to be remanded to gather more information about the others involved in the crime.
After the hearing, Magistrate Md Shafiuddin placed each of them on a seven-day remand in a case filed with Jatrabari Police Station in July this year under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Meantime, ten members of banned Ansar al-Islam were sent to jail today after their two-phased 15-day remand ended in a case filed with Dhaka's Kotwali Police Station over the snatching of two death-row convicts.
The accused are Shahin Alam alias Kalam, Shah Alam alias Salauddin, BM Majibur Rahman, Sumon Hossain Patwary, Arafat Rahman, Khairul Islam alias Sifat, Mozammel Hossain, Sheikh Abdullah, Abdur Sabur and Rashidunnabi Bhuiyan.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Jashim passed the order after Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad, an inspector of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and also the investigation officer of the case, produced them before it with a forwarding report.
In the forwarding report, the IO said all the 10 accused gave important information about the incident during the remand period. Police were verifying the information, he added.