Police confirm arrest of Iqbal who put Quran in Cumilla puja mandap

Cumilla police yesterday confirmed that the person arrested in Cox's Bazar on Thursday was Iqbal Hossain, the man responsible for placing the Quran in a Cumilla puja mandap.

During preliminary questioning, Iqbal admitted that he had placed the Quran inside the Nanuar Dighi puja mandap, but he did not say if anyone instructed him to do so, according to police sources.

A group of young men in Cox's Bazar identified Iqbal and informed the police.

Quoting police sources, our correspondent Tayubur Rahman Sohel in Cumilla reports that Iqbal had been acting strange since his arrest and a number of different law enforcement units were grilling him.

Earlier, following the Cumilla puja mandap incident, Iqbal, 30, was reportedly roaming around in the town and adjacent areas for six days, according to police sources. However, police are yet to know how he managed to go to Cox's Bazar.

A police official, who was involved in questioning Iqbal in custody, said, "After the 13 October incident Iqbal was in Cumilla for the next six days. Then, the CCTV footage [showing him placing the Quran in the mandap] was made public and someone must have cautioned him about it – and he left for Cox's Bazar on Monday."

The official said they were yet to unearth who were giving him the heads-up.

Cumilla Superintendent of Police Faruk Ahmed said it would take some time for them to know for certain if indeed there was anyone behind telling Iqbal to go to Cox's Bazar.

In search of the individual responsible for placing the Quran in the Nanuar Dighi puja mandap, 15 members of the Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) of police, five members of the Counter Terrorism Unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, and five from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) joined the Cumilla district police.

The investigators identified Iqbal as the suspect on 14 October.

One ATU official told The Business Standard, "Since the first day of our investigation, we started to analyse the CCTV footage of the area. On Thursday, a man was seen walking with an object, a stick or something like that, which we later saw was the gada [mace] from Hanuman's idol. Then we analysed the CCTV footage of the mandap before and after the incident took place to find out if anyone was carrying the gada.

"After analysing the footage repeatedly, on 14 October night, we were quite certain that Iqbal was the person who placed the Quran inside the puja mandap."

The official added that an operation to nab the suspect was underway immediately.

Another official, who was part of the probe, told TBS, "To know more about Iqbal, we went to his family. We learned about him being a drug addict and mentally unstable. We were also told that he does not use cell phones, which made it a difficult task to trace him."

A senior official of Cumilla police said, "After we talked to his family, we became even more certain. In the footage inside of Sujanagar Mosque, he was seen somersaulting, confirming what his family said."

Later, the police found out that Iqbal worked as the conductor on the Madina Bus Services on and off, which operates on the Cumilla-Feni route. Still, it appeared to be a difficult job locating him as he was always moving around from one place to another.

"At least 35-40 raids were conducted to apprehend Iqbal before he was eventually located and taken into custody in Cox's Bazar," the official added.

How Iqbal was identified in Cox's Bazar

Sazzadur Rahman Anik, one of the five friends, who contacted the police with information of possibly seeing Iqbal in Cox's Bazar, told TBS, "Around 4:30pm he and his four friends were at the Kalatali Darianagar beach, listening to songs. At one point, we heard a young man, in a loud voice, singing along with Atif Aslam's popular track 'Ore Priya' being played on our Smartphone. At first, we were startled a bit as we did not know him. We stopped the song but he kept singing. Then we talked to him and he told us that his name is Iqbal Hossain and he hailed from Cumilla."

Anik also said Iqbal requested them to buy him food and cigarettes.

Back to their hotel room, when they saw the CCTV footage of the Cumilla incident, they found resemblance with the police suspect and the Iqbal they had encountered on the beach.

On Thursday evening around, they saw Iqbal again near the Kalatali-Sugandha beach and informed the Begumganj police station in Noakhali. Police told the friends to keep talking with Iqbal and sent them the phone number of the Cumilla SP.

Later, when they talked with the Cumilla police super, he told them that the suspect Iqbal had a cut mark on his belly.

The five friends took photos, videos and audio records of his voice to the Cumilla police super. Later, the Cox's Bazar police detained Iqbal and took him to Cox's Bazar police super.

"He was asking for money, and requesting us to buy him food. He told us that he went to Cox's Bazar two-three days prior to our encounter with him," Mehedi Hasan Mishu, another of the five friends told TBS.

"He told us this is how he survives, asking people for food," added Mishu.

Iqbal admits placing Quran inside puja mandap, silent on others' involvement

During initial questioning, Iqbal admitted that he placed the Quran on an idol inside the Nanuar Dighi puja mandap but did not respond to questions if anyone had asked him to do so.

The suspect was being questioned on his action, which triggered a spate of violence in various areas of the country, at the Cumilla Police Lines.

On condition of anonymity an official told TBS, "He admitted that he placed the Quran on a Hanuman idol and took the gada from it. But, he did not say if anyone instructed him to do so."

The official added that Iqbal had been acting strange since he was arrested.

After the arrest Iqbal was brought to the Cumilla Police Lines, where a number of law enforcement units are grilling him. Around 12:30pm, police presented Iqbal, donned in a bulletproof vest and helmet, in a media call. A team of police, led by Additional Superintendent of Police (Cumilla Circle) Md Sohan Sarker brought the suspect from Cox's Bazar.

Confirming the identity of the arrestee, Cumilla Superintendent of Police Md Faruk Ahmed said, "This is the man we identified as Iqbal from the CCTV footage."

To confirm his identity after his arrest in Cox's Bazar, police brought in Iqbal's mother and she identified his son with visual confirmation of a cut-mark on his belly in a video call, according to credible independent sources.

It is suspected that an organised circle used Iqbal to keep the Quran in the mandap. According to several sources, their target was Nanuar Dighi puja mandapa. However, when Iqbal took the Quran from the mosque, there were devotees inside the mandap. Iqbal then went to the Gupta Jagannath temple nearby. He tried to break the lock on the temple's gate. Failing to break the lock he returned to the Nanuar Dighi mandap and placed the Quran inside triggering incidents of violence in places across the country.

Achintya Das Titu, general secretary of Cumilla Mahanagar Puja Udjapan Parishad, said, "We have been demanding from the beginning that those involved in the incident must be brought to justice. We also demand that the mail culprits behind the incident must be found."