Mehedy hands over hefty amount of money to escaped militants: CTTC
Mehedy Hasan Omi alias Rafi, 24, who was arrested in a case filed over snatching two militant convicts from the court, came to Old Dhaka with a hefty amount of money.
He later handed over the amount to the escaped militants.
The chief of counter terrorism and transnational crime (CTTC) unit and the additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Md Asaduzzaman, came up with this disclosure at a press briefing on Thursday.
The CTTC chief said Mehedy directly participated in snatching away the two militants from the court premises on 20 November. He was arrested on Wednesday from Jatrabari area in Dhaka.
Md Asaduzzaman said Mehedy came to the court area with a hefty amount of money. As a part of his plan, he handed over the money to the militants after they were snatched away so that they could bear their expenses.
The additional commissioner said the arrestee was discharging duty as the convener of the banned militant outfit, Ansar Al Islam.
During the primary interrogation, Mehedy said the plan of snatching the two militants away from the court premises was chalked out at the directive of the outfit’s high-ups, Asaduzzaman quoted the arrestee who also said they planned to snatch the all four militants.
The CTTC chief said he is a top leader of the outfit and would maintain communication with the arrested and convicted militants in different cases. He would contact the militants when they were brought to the court from the prison and inform them about the plan of the outfit. The two militants were snatched away under his leadership.
Md Asaduzzman said previously he was engaged with Hijbut Tahrir and was arrested in 2010. Later he walked out of jail on bail and joined Ansar Al Islam in 2013. He was sued in three lawsuits filed with the city’s Mohammadpur, Sutrapur and Badda police stations under the anti-terrorism act in 2016. Besides, two cases were filed against him under the same act in 2010 and 2012 in Sylhet.
Replying to a query, he said they are yet to ascertain the whereabouts of the escaped militants. However, the efforts are underway to arrest them.
Several officials of CTTC told Prothom Alo that Mehedy appeared before the court on 20 November while on bail in a case filed with Mohammadpur police station. Those who were snatched away from the court were the accused of the same case.
The two militants, who were snatched away, are Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Sifat Samir, from Madhabpur village in Chhatak upazila, Sunamganj and Md Abu Siddique Sohel alias Sakib from Bhateshwar village in Aditmari upazila in Lalmonirhat.
They were awarded death sentence in murder cases filed over the murder of Jagriti Prokashoni’s Foysal Arefin Dipan and blogger Avijit Roy.