Fugitive sacked major Syed Ziaul Haque masterminded the escape of two Ansar al-Islam members from the Dhaka court premises, said the Detective Branch (DB) of police.
Confirming the matter to reporters at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) media centre on Monday, Additional Commissioner of Detective Branch Harun Or Rashid said, “Escaped militants are under surveillance.
“We will be able to arrest them at any time. A case has been filed against 20 people following the incident. Some of them have been arrested and remanded. A five-member probe committee has been formed to investigate this incident.”
DMP has suspended five of its officials for negligence of duty, he said, adding that they were responsible for taking the militants to the court.
The suspended police officials are Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate Court Inspector Matiur Rahman, SI Nahidur Rahman Bhuiyan, trainee SI Md Mohiuddin, constables Sharif Hasan and Abdus Sattar.
On Sunday, the government issued a red alert at all the entry and exit points of Bangladesh to aid in the arrest of the two escaped convicts.
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Md Abu Siddique Sohel alias Sakib alias Sajid alias Shahab, 33, of Lalmonirhat and Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Sifat alias Samir alias Imran, 24, of Sunamganj both are convicted in Jagriti Prokashani’s publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan murder case and one in blogger Avijit murder case.
Publisher Dipan, son of Prof Abul Kashem Fazlul Huq of Dhaka University, was hacked to death in his office on the second floor of Aziz Super Market at Shahbagh on October 31, 2015.
A case was filed with Shahbagh police station the following day and later the case was transferred to DB police. On November 15, 2019, police pressed charges against the eight Ansar-Al-Islam men in the case.
On February 10, 2021, the Dhaka Anti-Terrorism Tribunal sentenced eight militants, including Sohel and Shamim, to death.
In a similar incident, armed members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh ambushed a prison van and snatched away three of their fellows in Trishal of Mymensingh on February 23, 2015. A police constable was killed as the attackers opened fire and hurled crude bombs at the prison van.
Ansar al-Islam, a banned militant group which the government dubs homegrown militants, grabbed headlines when its members were accused of hacking to death several secular bloggers, atheist writers and LGBT activists.
Bangladesh has since launched a nationwide crackdown against Islamist militants, outlawing half a dozen groups, killing more than a hundred militants in raids and arresting hundreds of suspected extremists.
Bangladesh has not witnessed a major terror attack since 2016 when a group of militants hacked and shot to death 22 people – nearly all foreigners – at Holey Artisan restaurant in Dhaka.
