Bangladesh: Mastermind of Gulshan cafe attack and Kunio killer die in ‘shootout’ with police

Chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism unit Monirul Islam immediately confirmed bdnews24.com of Marzan’s identity. His associate was later identified as Saddam Hossain, wanted in Japanese national murder case.

The two were shot dead in the early hours on Friday 6/1 in a ‘gun battle’ with a unit of counter-terrorism police near Mohammadpur Beribandh in Dhaka, police later said. Monirul said the ‘gunfight’ took place around 3am on Friday.

Saddam alias ‘Rahul’ was also one of the organisers for Jamaat-e-Islami’s student affiliate in northern Bangladesh.

Marzan was labelled as the mastermind of the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery on 1st July last year, in which 20 people were killed — mostly foreigners, italian and japanese.

On Sep 10, police detained three persons from Azimpur including the neo-“Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh” leader Marzan’s wife Afrin alias Prioti.

The counter-terrorism unit chief told a press conference on Aug 12 that grisly pictures from Holey Artisan were sent out in consultation with neo-JMB leader Marzan.

Earlier, Bangladeshi-so-called-Canadian Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, who was singled out by police as the neo-“Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh” chief and the key player in the recent terror activities in Bangladesh, and two others were killed in a police operation in Narayanganj on Aug 27.

Another counter-terrorism official, Mohibul Islam, told bdnews24.com, acting on a tip-off, one of the units set up a check-point in the Mohammadpur Beribandh area on Thursday night. “Around 3am they came to the check-post area. When they confronted police, they threw grenades and opened fire. Police fired back and two of them were injured. When they were taken to the hospital, the duty doctor announced them dead,” Mohibul said.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital police outpost Sub-Inspector Bachchu Mia said two persons with gunshot wound were brought to DMCH on a Mohammadpur Police Station vehicle around 3:40am. “One of them was about 28 years of age and the other 32. They had bullet wounds in the head and chest,” he said.

Mohammadpur Police Station OC, however, had no information regarding the two others taken to DMCH in critically injured condition. “I am not fully aware of the incident,” he said adding, “I will be able to let you know later.”

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Who is Marzan?

Born as Nurul Islam, Marzan is the son of Nizam Uddin, a hosiery worker at Hemayetpur’s Afuria village in Pabna. After completing school at Pabna Alia Madrasa, he got admitted to Chittagong University.

His father confirmed his identity after police published his name and photo in August last year following the July attack in Gulshan.

Marzan had been out of touch with his family for eight months, said Nizam then, also revealing that they had heard of him getting married.

According to the university authorities, Marzan dropped out of Arabic studies in 2015 while he was in the second year and never went back there again.

Police recovered several laptops and documents of Islami Chhatra Shibir from a student hall that year. Traces of Marzan’s involvement with the student affiliate of Jamaat, were picked up from there.

Neo-“Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh” leader Tanvir Qaderi committed suicide at Dhaka’s Azimpur during the police raid on Sep 10 last year, police said.

His wife Abedatul Fatema alias Khadija, Marzan’s wife Prioti and another Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh leader Basharuzzaman Chocolate’s wife Sharmin alias Shaila Afrin were caught injured then after attempting to fight police. One of them sustained a bullet wound while the others tried to commit suicide.

Later, towards the end of the last year, the female operatives of the militant outfit said their husbands had forced them to take to terrorism, said Monirul. The issue came to spotlight after police raided a militant hideout in Dhaka’s Ashkona on Dec 24 last year.

Describing Marzan as an ‘extremely autocratic’ person and husband, Monirul quoted Prioti as saying, “Marzan used to force his wife to go by all his wishes.”

“Prioti was brought up by her uncle. Her education did not go far, later she did not do any job. She felt insecure that her husband would leave her if she did not follow his ideology.”

“She never believed in militancy or supported people inspired by that. She was only following her husband’s orders,” Monirul added.

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Saddam Hossain: Multiple murder charges

Saddam hails from Kurhigram and is the son of Taju Alam alias Alam Jola of Char Bidyananda under Kurhigram’s Rajarhat Upazila.

He was named in the chargesheet submitted over the murder of the sexagenarian Kunio Hoshi. The muslim Japanese citizen was shot dead in a village of Rangpur’s Kaunia Upazila on Oct 3, 2015.

Saddam carried out militant activities across northern parts of the country under different aliases, like ‘Chanchal,’ ‘Rahul,’ ‘Sabuj’ and ‘Robi.’

He was also charged for the murders of Khadem Rahamat Ali in Kaunia, Jogeshwar Ray in
Panchagarh, Christian-convert freedom fighter Hossain Ali in Kurhigram and Ruhul Amin, a leader of Baha’i faith.

According to police, Saddam Hossain was named in a number of cases for murders and attempted murder, also including murders of Gaibandha physician Deepti, Nilfamari’s Khadem.

 

Source: BD News24