Investigators said on Thursday that they have found out the root of militancy in the country after busting a militant hideout in the city, which has been acclaimed as a great success of the law enforcers.
Nine militants were killed in the raid on a residential building 'Jajaz Bari" in Kalyanpur on July 26.
Police identified the alleged masterminds, Maj (sacked) Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque and Bangladeshi-born Canadian citizen Tamim Chowdhury.
Police also found out that Zia masterminded the murder of most of the bloggers, publishers including Faisal Arefin Dipan because the Jagriti Prokashoni, a publisher, had brought out a book by slain secular writer-blogger Avijit Roy, a key suspect in the case, Shamim, has told the police.
Shamim, who also uses the aliases Sifat, Samir and Imran, was captured based on information from another detainee named Shihab alias Sumon.
Police placed a Tk 20 lakh bounty for the arrest of Zia and Tamim.
Hasnat Karim, a former teacher of North South University and UK citizen, and Tahmid Hasib, a student of a university in Toronto, were witnesses to the bloody carnage inside the café. Whereabouts of the duo, who came out of the Holey Artisan alive, were unclear since they were picked up by lawmen for quizzing in the aftermath of the Gulshan café attack on July 1. Both are now in jail.
In the Gulshan attack the militants had killed 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners. During the police raid, six people, including five attackers were killed. Middle East-based group the Islamic State reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack and released photos of the five attackers.
On October 31, Dipan, who was friends with Avijit and had published one of his books, was hacked to death inside his office at Dhaka's Aziz Super Market.
Shamim, 24, was the person in charge, also known by militants as "Masul," of the five-member 'sleeper cell' that killed Dipan. He actively participated in the attack, the Counter Terrorism and transnational Crime unit chief said.
During primary interrogation, Shamim admitted that he had met Zia, sacked army major, for his involvement in a failed coup in December of 2011, a couple of times, and that Zia had given the team motivational speeches on the necessities of waging an armed jihad.
