Banned Islamist militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team issued yet another letter yesterday, threatening to kill 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 Mujahid for his 1971 war crimes.
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 second, 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 Yousuff Bachchu, DU history Professor Syed Anwar Hossain and war crimes trial campaigner Shahriar Kabir confirmed this to the Dhaka Tribune.
The hit-list also includes Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, senior journalist Abed Khan, theatre activist Ramendu Majumdar, cultural activist Syed Hasan Imam, Liberation War Museum Trusty Mofidul Hoque, Gonojagoron Moncho activists Kamal Pasha Chowdhury, Mahmudul Haq Munshi and Bappaditya Basu, Boishakhi Television CEO Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul, daily Bhorer Kagoj Editor Shyamal Dutta, ATN News Head of News Munni Saha, journalists Shahin Reza Noor, Nobonita Chowdhury and Anjan Roy, Chhatra League General Secretary Siddique Nazmul Alam, bloggers Kaniz Aklim Sultana and FM Shahin, private university teacher Arafat Rahman and cultural activist Sangeeta Imam.
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.”
When contacted, OC of Shahbagh police station Abu Bakkar Siddique said they had already began an investigation after the filing of the GD.
However, police have not yet made any progress in tracing those who sent 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 the 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 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.