Banned Islamist militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team issued yet another letter yesterday, threatening to kill at least 25 eminent personalities, most of whom are known for their secular thinking and writing.
This comes on the same day as the Supreme Court upholds the death sentence handed down to Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed for his 1971 war crimes.
Ansarullah Bangla hit-listInformation Minister Hasanul Haque Inu
Senior journalist Abed Khan
War crimes trial campaigner Shahriar Kabir
DU VC AAMS Arefin Siddique
DU Professor Syed Anwar Hossain
Theatre activist Ramendu Majumdar
Theatre activist Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu
Cultural activist Syed Hasan Imam
Writer Muhammad Zafar Iqbal
Liberation War Museum Trusty Mofidul Hoque
Gonojagoron Moncho spokesperson Imran H Sarker
Gonojagoron Moncho activist Kamal Pasha Chowdhury
Gonojagoron Moncho activist Mahmudul Haque Munshi
Gonojagoron Moncho activist Bappaditya Basu
Boishakhi Television CEO Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul
Daily Bhorer Kagoj Editor Shyamal Dutta
ATN News Head of News Munni Shaha
Journalist Shahin Reja Nur
Journalist Nobonita Chowdhury
Journalist Anjan Roy
Chhatra League General Secretary Siddique Nazmul Alam
Blogger Kaniz Aklim Sultana
Blogger FM Shahin
Private university teacher Arafat Rahman
Cultural activist Sangeeta Imam
Among other reasons, the letter says that these people should be killed because they support the “imaginary” trial of war crimes and the execution of convicts.
Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique, writer Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and Gonojagoron Moncho spokesperson Imran H Sarker are featuring in an Ansarullah hit-list for the second time.
The militant outfit has issued similar death threats at least twice before in the last one month, but the letter sent to the DU VC's office around 12:30pm yesterday was different on two counts – first, it was written under an Ansarullah letter head and the language appeared to be much more polished.
However, until 10pm yesterday, none of the 24 other personalities mentioned in the hit-list have reported receiving the letter. Of them, theatre activist Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu, DU history Professor Syed Anwar Hossain and war crimes trial campaigner Shahriar Kabir confirmed this to the Dhaka Tribune.
Confirming that the VC's office had received the letter, DU acting proctor Prof Amzad Ali told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have filed a general diary [GD] with the Shahabagh police station in this regard.”
Contacted, OC of Shahbagh police station Abu Bakkar Siddique said they had already began investigation after the filing of the GD.
However, police have not yet made any progress in tracing those behind sending the previous death letters although several GDs had been filed with Dhaka's Shahbagh and Dhanmondi police stations by the recipients.
Those two letters, issued on May 21 and June 2, threatened to kill State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Prime Minister’s Political Affairs Adviser HT Imam, former University Grants Commission chairman AK Azad Chowdhury, DU Jagannath Hall Provost Asim Sarkar, DU Journalism Professor Kaberi Gayen, ruling party lawmaker Tarana Halim, and actor Shomi Kaiser among others.
When contacted and asked about Jamaat-Shibir's invovlement with the threat, junior home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said: “We suspect that they might be involved with it, but we will be able to say clearly once we get investigation reports.”
After the previous letters were issued, the junior minister said that Jamaat-e-Islami had been trying to create unrest using the militants outfits to disturb the trial of war crimes.
On May 25, the government issued a circular announcing a ban on the Ansarullah Bangla Team. This outfit has claimed the responsibility for the murders of several secular activists including science writer Avijit Roy, bloggers Ahmed Rajeeb Haider and Ananta Bijoy Das and RU professor AKM Shafiul Islam.
Ansarullah has said that it shares the common goal of establishing shariah law with international militant groups al-Qaeda, Islamic State (IS) and Taliban and local Islamist parties Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam.
Recently, police have found that this outfit has been involved with the bloody bank heist in Ashulia near Dhaka.