Gulshan cafe attack
JMB leader Mahfuz supplied grenades
He is among 11 Burdwan blast suspects
Habibullah Mizan
A top Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leader, identified as Shohel Mahfuz, had supplied grenades to the Gulshan attackers, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) claimed yesterday.
Investigators have found credible evidence of Shohels involvement in the deadly Gulshan attack. He is absconding at present, additional police commissioner Monirul Islam said.
Law enforcers said Shohel was chief of the old JMB and one of the most wanted militants. He later got involved in the banned outfits new faction led by Tamim Chowdhury, the slain mastermind of the caf attack on July 1 in which at least 22 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed.
RAB additional director general (operations) Col. Anwar Latif Khan told The Independent that Shohel was arrested in 2010, but later got bail mysteriously. He has been missing since then and there was no updated information on his whereabouts, he added. According to RAB sources, Shohelhad become acting chief of the old JMB after the arrest of the outfits chief, Maulana Saidur Rahman, in 2010.
An RAB team had arrested Shohel along with four associates from a secret hideout in Dhaka in 2010. They were arrested while holding a meeting in which all top JMB leaders where present. The RAB team had also seized huge amounts of bomb-making materials and jihadi publications from their possession.
After the execution of top JMB leadersSheikh Abdur Rahman, Rahmans brother Ataur Rahman Sunny, Rahmans son-in-law Abdul Awal Molla alias Omar alias Shakil Ahmed, Siddiqur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai, Amjad Hossain alias Khalid Saifullah, suicide bomber Iftekhar Hasan Al Mamun and Asadur Rahman Arifthe JMB faced a leadership crisis.
Later, Maulana Saidur Rahman was selected as its new chief. But his arrest soon afterwards crippled the outfits activities. Later, Shohel was named as the outfits new chief following a meeting of the JMBs military wing.
According to intelligence officials, Shohel was known as an explosive expert in the JMB. He had lost his left hand while blasting bombs in 2008 and was known as Pongu (crippled) Mahfuz.
He then escaped to India and was hiding there. He had returned to Bangladesh around one-and-a-half months before he was arrested in 2010.
Just before his arrest, Shohel was staying in Rajshahi, Sylhet and Jamalpur districts, and later set up a militant hideout at Majar Road in Dhakas Shah Ali police station area.
He also appointed one Sarful Islam as a unit Amir to reorganise JMB in Rajshahi division. He also held meetings with militants in Dhakas Mirpur, Ashulia, Uttara and Tongi areas.
On November 18, 2014, Bangladesh had handed over a list of wanted militants suspected to be hiding in India to a visiting team of Indian NIA. Shohels name was in the list. On the other hand, his name had also figured in the NIAs list of 11 militants suspected to be involved in the October 2, 2014, Burdwan blast in India.
The Indian list, however, described his name as Nasirullah. Later, law enforcement agencies of the both countries had confirmed that Nasirullah was actually Shohel. The confirmation came after the arrest of Rohingya militant Khalid Mohammad from Hyderabad in India.
In March 2015, NIA had also filed a charge-sheet against four Bangladesh nationals, including Shohel, at the court of NIA special judge in Kolkata in connection with the Burdwan blast.
Mentioning him as a suspected member of JMB, the charge-sheet had detailed how he was involved in the blast.
Intelligence officials said several top militants have gone into hiding after securing bails in different cases and later tried to reorganise their outfits.
Among those arrested by RAB, 192 JMB men, 74 HuJI leaders and activists, and 109 Hizbut Tahrir men have secured bails. Several of them have been absconding after getting bail.
However, RAB (intelligence wing) director Abul Kalam Azad said the elite force has already made a list of militant leaders and activists who have gone into hiding after securing bails.
According to sources, Maulana Idris Ali, a close aide of arrested Harkat-ul Jihad-Al-Islami (HuJI) top leader Mufti Hannan, got bail and was released from jail on January 20, 2011, and he has remained absconding since then.
HuJI leaders Maulana Abdul Latif and Shakhwat Hossain alias Dulal were released from jail on August 28, 2010, and April 17, 2011, respectively. There is information that both of them are now there in the country.
Maulana Akbar Hossain alias Helel Uddin, an accused in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in front of Bangabandu Avenue, was released from jail on August 18, 2011. He has reportedly been hiding in Pakistan.
Maulana Ashraful Islam, who was released from jail on May 7, 2012, has also been in hideout in the country.
Top government policymakers have expressed their concern about the militants tendency to go underground after securing bails. Law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister Anisul Haque recently urged lawyers aides not to submit any wakalatnama (letter of authority) for bail petitions of suspected militants.
