RAB director blames intelligence failure

The law enforcement agencies certainly cannot avoid their responsibility in the escape of two death-row convict militants from the court premises, said Commander Khandaker Al Moin, Rapid Action Battalion’s director for legal and media wing.

He said, “If we were prepared in advance, it would be easier to take action. We could have prevented the escape of militants. So, the law enforcement forces cannot avoid the responsibility.”

The RAB director said this while responding to questions at the press conference at the RAB Media Centre in Karwan Bazar of the capital on Monday after arresting five more militants.

Mentioning the need for coordinated initiatives to prevent such incidents, Moin said, "We think if there was coordination among all including the prison security department, and detectives, such an incident would not take place."

Asked whether the two escapee militants have already left the country, Moin said that he cannot say anything about that right now.

RAB and other law enforcement agencies are working to re-arrest the two. “We are examining their previous criminal activities, the CCTV footage of their movement at various places,” he said.

On November 20, two members of the banned Islamist outfit Ansar al-Islam – Abu Siddique Sohel and Moinul Hasan Shamim – who were sentenced to death in publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan's murder case, were whisked away from police custody at Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate court premises.

They also tried to snatch two other accused, Arafat and Sabur, but failed. Police filed a case against 20 people in this connection.

At the press briefing, Moin said RAB arrested five more members of the new militant group ‘Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya’ in Narayanganj’s Sonargaon and Dhaka’s Gulistan area on Sunday night.

The arrestees are – Golam Sarwar, 25, Saqib Mahmud, 27, Farhad Hossain, 22, Murad Hossain, 21, and Wasikur Rahman alias Nayem, 28.

Moin said that this group has planning to kill a member of the policeman in Gaibandha under the direction of the top level for insulting Islam. Three to four members also got together to execute the murder plan.

These five members, however, were arrested before the implementation of that plan, he added.