Failed 'lone wolf' militant attack in Gulshan
The young man who hurled a petrol bomb at a car belonging to the American International University of Bangladesh (AIUB) was a ‘lone wolf’ militant. He learned how to make petrol bombs and also attack techniques online. He selected the diplomatic area to conduct the attack. Sources said that the attacker Delwar Hossain, who was nabbed from the spot, revealed this during interrogations .
Delwar threw a petrol bomb at a microbus of the private university AIUB on a road adjacent to the embassy area in Dhaka's Gulshan on Thursday. Subsequently, the locals caught him and handed him over to the police. After the arrest, police raided his village home in Singair, Manikganj and recovered multiple electronic devices and a few documents. The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the police is questioning Delwar on three-day remand on Friday in a case filed with Gulshan Police Station under the Special Powers Act.
According to CTTC sources, Delwar Hossain was inspired by Ansar Al Islam's ideology, reading various extremist articles online and watching videos. However, the police did not get any information about his contacts with any militant organisation.
CTTC officials said Delwar Hossain graduated from the Dhaka Agricultural Institute a few years ago. Two years ago, he went to Japan to do a diploma course in business development. He returned from Japan last March without completing his diploma course. But even before he left for Japan, Delwar was inspired by extremist ideology. After returning from Japan, he was staying in his village Singair. During interrogation, he said that Muslims were being persecuted all over the world, but the government and law wenforcement are not protesting. For this reason, he planned to attack the diplomatic area to disrupt the government and law enforcement forces. He thought there was a foreign national in that AIUB car.
CTTC deputy commissioner (DC) Abdul Mannan told Prothom Alo, “Delwar Hossain is self-radicalised’. He confessed to plan the onslaught being inspired by the ideology of Ansar Al Islam. Investigations are underway to determine whether he was involved with any militant organisation.”
Publisher arrested suspected of militancy
A certain Habibur Rahman alias Shamim, owner and publisher of Al Rihab publications in Banglabazar, was arrested for being involved with militant activities.
He was arrested on Saturday from Islami market of Banglabazar by the Anti-terrorism Unit (ATU) of police.
ATU members claimed Habibur Rahman was a member of Ansarullah Bangla. He publishes and sells various books of Islamist extremism being inspired by the Ansarullah leader Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani.
ATU spokesperson police superintendent Mohammad Aslam Khan told Prothom Alo, a member of Ansarullah Bangla Kawsar Ahmed alias Milon was arrested from Muktagachha of Mymensingh on Thursday.
Habibur Rahman was arrested on his lead, he added.
Habibur started the publication house in 2016. He is from Mohonpur of Araihazar upazila in Marayanganj.
Aslam Khan said that Firoz, an aide of imprisoned Jasim Uddin Rahmani, gave some books to Habibur Rahman for publishing. While publishing and selling the books, at one point he himself was inspired by the radical ideology. He developed close relations with the members of Ansarullah. Later Habibur secretly published and sold various radical books.
Persons arrested in Dinajpur associated with online madrasah
CTTC officials said the 18 people arrested in Dinajpur Thursday were members of Ansar Al Islam. They opened online madrasahs to teach religion online as a recruitment strategy. For four months, they were training by opening their own group on social media. As a part of this, the selected trainees from different areas were taken to different mosques of Dinajpur Sadar and Biral Upazila. Police arrested them from there.
Abdul Mannan, deputy commissioner of CTTC, told Prothom Alo that 18 people have been brought under the law after extensive interrogation and screening.