Slain Militants: Law enforcers identify five

Law enforcement agencies yesterday confirmed the identities of five out of the 12 suspected militants, including a “Neo JMB financier”, who were killed in separate raids in Gazipur, Tangail and Ashulia on Saturday.

Gazipur police revealed identities of three of the seven alleged militants killed during a police raid in Patartek area.

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The Rapid Action Battalion disclosed identities of two out of the four suspected militants killed in separate Rab raids in Gazipur's Lebubagan and Tangail town areas.

Harun-or-Rashid, superintendent of police in Gazipur, said based on information from two police stations and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), they identified the three Patartek militant suspects as Saifur Rahman alias Bablu of Sylhet's Chhatak upazila, Ibrahim Khalil of Old Dhaka and Faridul Islam Akash of Sirajganj's Kazipur upazila.

According to police, Akash was the commander of the “Neo JMB's Dhaka region unit”. He used to train JMB operatives in Patartek. 

Neo JMB is an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB), claim law enforcers.

The two other suspected militants, whose identities have been given by the law enforcers, are Ahsan Habib and Aminul Ehsan. Ahsan was killed along with an unidentified militant suspect in Tangail and Aminul with another unidentified suspect in Lebubagan area.

Ahsan was from Rani Nagar upazila of Naogaon while Aminul was from Kalai upazila in Joypurhat, Mufti Mahmud Khan, Rab's legal and Media wing director, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Rab on its official Facebook page last night released photographs of the “Neo JMB financer” and the two “unidentified militants”, and sought information on them.

The “financier” died after he jumped off a five-storey building to flee during a Rab raid in Ashulia of Savar on the outskirts of the capital, said the elite force.

Though his passport says his name was Abdur Rahman, police believe either the passport or the permanent address mentioned in it was fake.

On Sunday, the DMP had released photographs of the seven Patartek militant suspects and asked for information on them.

SAIFUR

Saifur's father Motiur Rahman said a youth, who was seen wearing a red T-shirt in the photographs released by the DMP, was his only son.

Saifur passed his SSC examination in 2012 from Shukurunnesa High School in Sylhet's Chhatak and HSC in 2014 from Saarc International College in Raynagar of Sylhet.

Later, he got admitted to Sylhet MC College, Motiur told The Daily Star.

Motiur, a cattle trader, said his son went missing around two months ago, and his mobile phone had been switched off since then.

Worried sick, the family first informed the union parishad chairman about the matter and then filed a general diary (GD) with the local police station.

“I would neither see his face nor receive his body. It's because he was doing something that was against our country,” said the father who claimed that he was totally unaware of his son's evil deeds.

AHSAN

Altaf Hossain, father of militant suspect Ahsan Habib, said he was almost certain that one of the dead was his son.

Ahsan, who was an honours third year student of English in Rajshahi University, went missing from a student mess in Boalia area on July 15 last year, said Altaf, adding that he filed a GD with Boalia Police Station a few days later.

Following the Gulshan attack on July 1, he also submitted a copy of that GD to Rani Nagar Police Station in Naogaon.

“On being informed by Rani Nagar police that one of the slain Tangail militants was my son, I went to a Rab camp in Tangail. They showed me a photograph of a man that looks like my son,” he told The Daily Star over phone last night.

He said he was waiting to identify the body.

Altaf said his son was facing an arms case filed in December, 2014. He went missing after securing bail.

Asked, he claimed that he had absolutely no idea whether his son was involved in any militant activities.

EHSAN

Aminul Ehsan, one of the two killed in the raid in Lebubagan area, was an eighth semester student of computer science at Bogra Polytechnic Institute.

His brother Ataur Rahman said Aminul had been missing since he left home on October 4 last year. He also had filed a GD with Kalai Police Station.

“At first, Kalai police called us over the phone and then visited our home to say that one of the dead militants was my brother,” said Ataur, adding that they had not seen any photos.

They were on their way to find out whether Aminul was indeed among the dead.

IBRAHIM

Ibrahim, a student of a Jatrabari madrasa, went missing from his Purana Mogholtuli home on August 8. He had completed Alim studies from Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrasa at Tongi in Gazipur.

Ibrahim's father Azim Uddin broke down in tears looking at the photographs at the office of a police official. He demanded punishment to those who made his son a militant.

“I want nobody's son to get involved in militancy. I want the government to take stern measures,” he told journalists.

According to police, Ibrahim was preparing to carry out a suicide attack.

(Our Gazipur, Tangail and Dinajpur correspondents contributed to this report)