Escaped militants still traceless

Exactly a year ago from today, two death row convict militants, Abu Siddiq Sohel and Moinul Hasan Shamim, escaped from a Dhaka court with help from their associates.

While being taken to prison, the convicts assaulted their police escort, untied themselves from shackles and fled on a motorcycle.

Police are yet to get any trace of the two.

Sohel, an Ansar Al Islam member, and his associate Shamim were sentenced to death for the murder of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipon.

The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit is presently investigating the militant snatching incident.

Md Asaduzzaman, chief of the CTTC unit, also the additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, "The militants are hiding somewhere inside the country."

"We have raided some of their hideouts and managed to arrest several people directly involved in the snatching, including a main coordinator, also the wife of Sohel-- Fatima Tasnim Shikha," he said.

One of the absconding militants -- Shamim -- was in a hideout in Savar, but he managed to flee before a drive was conducted a couple of months back, Asaduzzaman told The Daily Star yesterday.

"Such operations are time-sensitive. But they will be arrested soon," he said.

According to investigators, the total number of arrests in the militant's escape case now stands at 20, and two of them gave confessional statements in court.

A high official of the CTTC unit, requesting anonymity said both militants -- Sohel and Shamim -- are hiding in two separate "Ansar House" or "Safe House".

There are three types of Safe Houses type A, B and C, and these two militants are staying in a type A house, the official told The Daily Star.

To stay in a type A house, the outfit is paying Tk 10,000 monthly to those providing shelters, while the militants themselves receive a payment of Tk 8,000 to Tk 10,000, said the officer.

In the last 12 months, the two have changed dozens of safe houses, which are located in Old Dhaka, Dhaka's outskirts, and North Bengal, said investigators.

Another CTTC unit official investigating the case said the two militants did not use any kind of device after being snatched.

They change shelters within a month or every two weeks, he added.

Security analyst Maj Gen (retd) Abdur Rashid said not arresting the escaped militants is a failure of the law enforcers.

Rashid, however, said militant outfits operate activities secretly so it cannot be expected that every effort will be a success. "As efforts are underway, we believe the success will come," he said.

Asked about potential threats, Rashid said absconding militants spend most of their time, energy, and money for hideouts once they escape.

"So, the militants will not get much time for devising an attack plan," he added.

However, investigators said both Sohel and Shamim were Ansar Al Islam's trainer and operational wing members, so they can still be a threat.

But they too said the snatched militants would not be engaged in operational activities right now for fear of getting exposed.