A terror suspect killed in an anti-terror raid in Dhaka was a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing and his father is a leader of the Islamist party in his native Khulna, police officers say.
The man, who blew himself up at a hotel in the capital’s Panthapath, has been identified as Saiful Islam who was born in Khulna.Police said he was an operative of the neo-JMB, a splinter group of banned Islamist group Jamaa’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB, blamed for last year’s attack on an upscale Gulshan restaurant.
Saiful, who was a political science student at the BL College in Khulna, was found dead inside a room of Hotel Olio International following two blasts on Tuesday.
Saiful was a Shibir activist before he joined the neo-JMB. His father Abul Khayer Molla is the imam of a local mosque in Khulna’s Dumuria Upazila, counter-terrorism chief Monirul Islam told the media.
Shibir is the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, the party which opposed Bangladesh’s independence and many of whose leaders are now facing trials or have been convicted by war crimes tribunals.
Police in Khulna’s Dumuria said they have taken Molla into their custody for interrogation. Molla, a resident of Noakathi village, serves the Jamaat’s Union Council unit as its treasurer, said Dumuria police OC Md Habil Hossain.
“We have brought him into our custody as soon as we got the news of his son’s death in Dhaka.”
Quoting Molla, the police officer said Saiful left for Dhaka on Aug 7 saying the visit had ‘something to do with his studies’.
“The last time he contacted with his family was on Sunday when he said he may return home on Monday.”
The counterterrorism unit and SWAT conducted the raid on the hotel, some 300 metres away from the site where mourners gathered to pay respects to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, assassinated 42 years ago.
On this day in 1975, the founding father of the nation and most of his family members were killed in a military putsch.
A loud explosion was heard from the hotel at 9:45 am, followed by gunfire. The explosion caused a section of the building’s fourth-floor wall to collapse onto the street below. Saiful was later found dead in the debris on the fourth floor.
After inspecting the scene, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque said the suspect was planning to target visitors to Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
Referring to the suspect and his family’s political affiliations, he said, “The same people who conspired to murder Bangabandhu were involved in planning this attack on the anniversary of his death. But we have foiled the plot.”
As soon as police proceeded to Saiful’s room, he exploded a bomb blowing the room’s door off, said IGP Hoque. “When the police opened fire, he set off a suicide vest.”
It was clear from the blast that the bomb was powerful enough to cause a carnage, if it was exploded on a crowd, according to the police chief.
‘The militant had planned to carry out a suicidal attack on processions heading towards Bangabandhu’s residence at Dhanmondi road 32 to pay homage to Bangabandhu on National Mourning Day on the eve of 15 August,’ claimed Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque.
Briefing reporters following the incident, he said the militant was an activist of Chhatra Shibir in his student life and his father is an Imam of a mosque.
“If he was not involved with Jamaat-Shibir, he would not have occurred such an incident on the day the country is mourning Bangabandhu’s killing on this day in 1975,” he observed.
Replying to a question, he said they would examine whether Saiful is a listed member of neo-JMB.
He said the intelligent officers of counter terrorism unit came to know militants would carry out suicide bomb attacks on the processions that would proceed towards Dhanmondi 32, Bangabandhu’s residence, and kill hundreds of people.
“Our counter terrorism and police intelligence followed them and identified their hide out at Olio Hotel…Being informed about their presence, police conducted a search operation and confined the militant,” he said.
The IGP said police compelled to go for operation as the militant did not respond to their repeated call to surrender.
As police started operation, the militant exploded a bomb that broke the door of the room. Police fired at him when he exploded another bomb. He blew himself up igniting his suicidal vest and backpack and IED explosives. But Saiful finally died by possibly exploding his suicide vest, he added.
The bomb was very powerful it would bring huge losses if it is exploded in a public gathering, he said.
Earlier in the day, police cordoned off a hotel in Pantapath area of Dhaka city. Members of the police and its special SWAT unit were deployed around the hotel and five other buildings there said, witnesses. A unit of fire services was kept ready for a possible operation.
Blasts and gunshots were then heard from the scene as the wall of one of the floors of the building that the police cordoned off, collapsed in a major blast.
The Almighty has saved us due to activities of counter terrorism intelligent. There was no casualty from the law enforcers during the operation but a police received splinter injuries, he said.
DMP commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah and chief of CTTC Monirul Islam, among others, were present during the press briefing.
He said local people informed him that Abul Khair is involved with Jamaat politics and he is the treasurer of Sahos union unit of the organization. Khair also the Imam of Noakathi Matherhat Jame Mosque, he said.
The OC said Saiful was a last year honours student of political science of Government BL University College and was living at Navy Colony in Khulna. Earlier, he studied in a Madrasha, he said.
