Jamaat-Shibir men behind the attacks on police: CTTC chief
He also claimed that militant activities have increased since the targeted killing of bloggers and atheists
The chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit (CTTC) and Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Monirul Islam says that Jamaat-Shibir men are responsible for the recent attacks on the police.
Monirul, who has been appointed as president of a special team formed by the DMP to probe five similar cases, made the comment at his office yesterday.
He said, “When the trial of war criminals started, militant groups began activities to halt the trials. People involved with Jamaat-Shibir have been carrying out targeted killings since then. Some bloggers and atheist were also killed a few years ago.”
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He also claimed that militant activities have increased since the targeted killing of bloggers and atheists.
These militants were responsible for the deadly attack at the Holy Artisan restaurant in Gulshan in 2016, said the DMP boss.
Monirul also said that law enforcers investigated all the militant attacks and learnt that Neo JMB men had carried them out.
The CTTC chief also claimed that some misguided youths and people involved with Jamaat-Shibir have started attacking the police in revenge for the conviction of their leaders by the war crimes tribunal.
“Many Jamaat-Shibir men were detained after the petrol-bomb incidents in 2014 and 2015, and this infuriated their followers and prompted them to act against the police.” Monirul further said.
An eight-member special team has been formed to assist the investigators in probing four more similar cases filed since the end of April, following the blast in Gulistan that targeted the police.
Monirul Islam, along with seven other officials from the detective branch and cyber unit, have been tasked to assist the counter-terrorism investigators in probing these incidents.
The other members of the committee are: Joint Commissioner of Detective Branch (DB) Mahbub Alam, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of Special Action Group of DMP Sanwar Hossain, CTTC’s ADC Mohammad Saiful Islam, ADC of Cyber Security and Crime Division of DMP AFM Al Kibria, ADC (South) of DB Hasan Arafath, DMP Assistant Commissioner (AC) of Newmarket area Saiful Islam and Khilgaon zone AC Jahidul Islam Sohag.
Two policemen were injured in a bomb blast in front of a police box in the capital’s Science Laboratory intersection on Saturday night.
The CTTC officials launched a fresh investigation following the attack.
Saturday’s bomb attack was the fifth incident since April.
Earlier, at least five people, including three traffic constables, were injured in separate crude bomb explosions in Malibagh and in Gulistan on May 26 and April 29 respectively.
