Law enforces are yet to locate Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque, a suspended major. Haque is also believed to be the leader of the local militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). He has also been suspected to be the mastermind behind the 2012 failed military coup attempt.
Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) chief, Monirul Islam earlier stated, Canadian citizen Tamim Chowdhury to be the leader of a new faction of JMB, while Ziaul to be leading the ABT. Tamim was killed during the (CTTC) unit raid in Narayanganj last year. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan earlier claimed Ziaul Haque and a number of his followers to be involved in terrorist attacks. Many of them are reported to be under strict surveillance.
Even though, police failed to locate the ABT networks but they claim to have successfully rooted out one of the factions of the Neo-JMB.
"By now we have a clear idea about how the ABT had struck bloggers and publishers critical of radical Islam, following a number of university teachers, including one who to have asked a woman student to remove her veil in class recently", said the CTTC chief.
Ziaul, as intelligence agencies call him was from the engineer corps and trained in special operations. His would be the first known case of a Bangladesh military officer switching sides to join a militant group.
According to a statement of two police officials, Zia's involvement with ABT was first mentioned by the head of its predecessor group following his capture in 2013.
He has been reported to be training fighters and motivating them to carry out jihad against "anti-Islamic" forces and also train to make crude bombs, mentioned the briefing of the interrogation report.
The masterminds of terror attacks carried out in Gulshan and Sholakia, the suspended Major Ziaul Haque and Canadian citizen Tamim Chowdhury are in Dhaka, said DMP sources.
Key "Neo-JMB" militants Basharuzzaman Chocolate and Mizanur Rahman alias Chhoto Mizan were killed during a raid by police on a militant den in Chapainawabganj's Shibganj about three months ago,
Basharuzzaman was a fund collector for "Neo-JMB" and Mizan was one of the suppliers of grenades and firearms used in the Gulshan café attack on July 1 last year, according to counterterrorism sources.
Police learnt about the identities of the above two while interrogating a key militant suspect Sohel Mahfuz, who was arrested earlier this month.
Mahfuz too, was a supplier of arms and grenades used in the attack that left 20 people dead including two police officers during the 1 July terror attacks in a Gulsahn Café.
A high official of the CTTC told the daily Observer on Friday that police are trying to arrest Ziaul Haque. The Police are trying out its level best to get more information out from Sohel Mahfuz.
The law enforcers suspect Mahfuz to know the actual hideout of the suspended terrorist major.
