2 persons from India involved in Trishal terrorist escape

Detective Branch (DB) police have said that two persons from India were also involved in the incident where a prison van was attacked in Trishal, Mymensingh, a policeman killed and three terrorists escaped.

On 23 February this year three militants of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were being transferred from Kasempur jail in Gazipur to the court in Mymensingh when an attack was launched on the prison van carrying them. The three militants were snatched away.

The three militants were Salahuddin alias Salehin, Zahidul Islam alias Boma Mizan and Raquib Hasan alias Hafez Mahmud. One member of the police died in the incident and two were seriously injured.

The police have been unable to catch Salehin and Boma Mizan as yet. They do not know whether they are still in the country of have fled across the border.

A few hours after the incident, police caught Hafez Mahmud at Sakhipur in Tangail. He was killed the next morning in "crossfire".

Four cases case were filed regarding the incident with the Mymensingh Trishal police station and Tangail's Sakhipur police stations. The criminal investigation department (CID) of the police is probing the matter. The detective branch of police (DB) arrested a few persons within hours of the incident.

Monirul Islam, DB joint commissioner, says probes have revealed that two persons under the names of Leku and Sajid were involved in the incident. Both of them had come from India, snatched the militants and had gone back to India. However, it could not be ascertained if this was the same Sajid who had been arrested in India recently. Not much could be found about Leku either.

Indian media claims that the Sajid who was arrested in India for the Burdwan bomb blast incident was actually Masum Miah of Farazikanda, Narayanganj. India's national investigation agency (NIA) has not contacted Dhaka's DB in this regard as yet.

DB officers said that as far as they know, Narayanganj's Masum had been arrested once back in 2005 for committing a robbery at the Brac office in Kotalipara, Gopalganj. He was charged with robbery and also for possession of explosive materials. He was sentenced to seven years in one case and life imprisonment in the other. Masum was later released on bail. In 2010 he was arrested again and yet again released on bail.

In the meantime, police, RAB and DB arrested 19 persons in the Trishal terrorist escape incident, including Zakaria alias Himel, the one who provided the vehicle and money. The 11 persons arrested by the police were Zakaria alias Himel, his wife Shamsunnahar Khatun alias Swapna, his brother Yusuf, father-in-law Nayan, Russel, associate Raju Ahmed, Sohrab Hossain, Al Amin, Golam Sarwar (Rahat), Ajmeer and Syed Ziaul Islam (Jitu). The eight arrested by RAB were Kamal Hossain (Sabuj), Sohel Rana, Murshed Alam, Anwar Hossain, Bashir  Uddin, Yusuf Ali, Ilyas Uddin and Abu Bakr Siddique.