Police are trying to hunt down two neo-JMB kingpins Maj (sacked) Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque and Nurul Islam Marjan, a student of Chittagong University, in its fight against militancy.
Tamim Chowdhury, a Canadian citizen of Bangladesh descent and the operation commander of the "neo-JMB," and the alleged mastermind of the militant attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan on July 1, was killed along with two other militants in Saturday's Narayanganj raid by law enforcers.
Zia and Marjan are also key leaders of neo-JMB. Police hope they will be able to nab the two kingpins and the rest of the militants soon.
Tamim was one of the masterminds of the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Gulshan on July 1 and the attack near the Sholakia Eid congregation in Kishoreganj on July 7, according to the law enforcers.
Law enforcers identified the root of the combined platform of militants comprising the banned Jama'atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI) and Hizb ut Tahrir (HuT). The platform is now known as the neo-JMB, according to police sources.
Meanwhile, "The neo-JMB has lost its strength substantially with the death of Tamim Chowdhury who was killed along with two other militants during a special police operation in a den of the 'neo-JMB' in Narayanganj," said Additional Commissioner and head of DMP's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Monirul Islam.
Police claimed that Marjan, was a close aide of Tamim Chowdhury. Marjan took the Holey Artisan attackers to the Gulshan area and later left the spot on July 1.
Police on Sunday said one of the militants killed in Saturday's Narayanganj raid might be Tausif Hassan, who studied at Monash University in Malaysia, said Monirul.
The other militant killed in Narayanganj operation has been identified as Fazle Rabbi. "The other terrorist seems to be Tausif Hassan who went missing from Dhanmondi though police are not completely sure about it at this moment."
Monirul Islam said, "If the militant is Tausif, then so far seven cases of missing men were found having links with Malaysia."
They were killed along with Tamim, a mastermind of Gulshan café attack, during Saturday's "Operation Hit Strong 27" in Paikpara area of Narayanganj.
Nibras Islam and Rohan Imtiaz -- two attackers of the Gulshan cafe -- and Tawsif Hossain, a close friend of Nibras, went to Malaysia for higher studies at Monash University. All the three simply vanished after returning home.
Junnun Sikder, a student of a top private university, Nazibullah Ansari, a marine engineer, and Mohammad Basharuzzaman, a private jobholder, also went to Malaysia and remain traceless. All of them are from well-to-do families and went to reputed schools and colleges.
Nibras Islam, one of the militants who reportedly played leadership role during the hostage crisis at Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1, also went to Monash University after studying at the Turkish Hope School in Dhaka.
"We can confirm the identity of one of the militants killed on Saturday. He is Fazle Rabbi from Jessore," he added. Police used Rabbi's name and photo in a poster on missing militants circulated by Jessore police superintendent recently, the police official said.
"We have matched the face with the national ID card of Fazle Rabbi found in the house and later, we talked to Jessore SP and confirmed his identity," the police official said.
"We tried to match the fingerprints of the militants with Election Commission's database, but we could not do so because of some problems," he said.
Law enforcers are conducting drives in search of eight to nine other militants who were involved in the recent militant attacks, including Gulshan café and Sholakia attacks, said Monirul.
He also expected that the activities of militant groups will soon be stopped in the face of the constant drives of the law enforcing agencies. All the three militants, including Tamim Chowdhury, who were killed during a special police raid at a den of the neo-JMB in Narayanganj, died from bullet wounds.
Dr Sohel Mahmud, Assistant Professor of Forensic Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said the three militants sustained bullet wounds in their head.
Besides, splinter injuries were found on the body of Tamim while splinters were found in the bodies of two other militants, he said while talking to journalists after conducting postmortem on their bodies from 11:00am to 1:00pm on Sunday.
The bodies have been kept at DMCH morgue.
Md Asaduzzaman, Officer-in-Charge of Narayanganj Sadar Model Police Station, filed a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act last midnight accusing the three militants, who were killed on Saturday, and some unidentified people.
Abdur Razzak, Inspector (investigation) of the police station, has been made the investigation officer of the case, added the OC.
