The Detective Branch of police yesterday took over the charge of investigation into the murder of a Dhaka-based Italian aid official in the Gulshan diplomatic zone in the city.
Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam, also the DB chief, will now look after the case, as per decision of a high-powered meeting held at the Police Headquarters earlier in the day.
An investigation assistance committee was also formed with CID Special Superintendent Md Rezaul Haider. The two officials will choose the other members of the body.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal claimed that the law enforcement agencies had not found any link of international militant group Islamic State (IS) with the murder of Cesare Tavella, the Italian.
Addressing a press conference in his office, the minister also claimed that there was no existence of IS in Bangladesh. He hoped that the killers would be traced soon.
Although IS has no organisational base in Bangladesh, the law enforcement agencies recently arrested a number of alleged IS recruiters, trainers and members of local banned militant groups and newly formed extremist outfits who are willing to join the outfit based in Syria and Iraq.
Tavella, 51, was shot dead by three unidentified assailants who came on a motorcycle near road number 90 of Gulshan 2 around 6:15pm on Monday. The killers fled the scene towards road 83 after one of them shot Tavella thrice.
He was taken to United Hospital by a car driver, Mohammad Bilal, only to be declared dead by the duty doctors around 7pm.
Tavella had been working as the project manager of PROOFS (Profitable Opportunities for Food Security) at the Netherlands-based development organisation ICCO Cooperation since May.
ICCO Country Representative Hellen Vander Beek filed a case with Gulshan police station around 10:30pm on Monday. The case was handed over to the Detective Branch (DB) yesterday afternoon.
The murder created much hype in the country as well as hit the headlines in international media apparently due to security alerts issued by the US and the UK for their citizens in Bangladesh, suspecting militant attack on western interests in late September.
It also coincided with the concerns expressed by Cricket Australia (CA) for not sending their players to Bangladesh to play a Test series.
Even on Monday noon, the visiting CA officials met the home minister to assess security arrangements. Minister Kamal had assured them of providing VVIP security protocol.
In a statement issued Monday midnight, the Islamic State (IS) said that a “security detachment” had tracked and killed Tavella with “silenced weapons” in Dhaka, according to the SITE Intelligence Group’s website.
It was not, however, clear how the gunshots could have been heard if a silencer was used.
IS warned that “citizens of the crusader coalition” would not be safe in Muslim nations.
After the death of Tavella, the US embassy in Dhaka renewed its security alert asking their citizens to review security practices and take precautions.
Canada followed suit yesterday, telling its citizens in Bangladesh that there was a “threat of terrorism.”
Moreover, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Gibson said in a statement that it was a “horrifying and cowardly crime against an aid worker working for the people of Bangladesh, helping the most vulnerable.”
EU Ambassador to Bangladesh Pierre Mayaudon in a statement condemned the murder labelling it a “terrorist crime.” He urged the law enforcement agencies “to promptly investigate this barbaric aggression and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
The Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangladesh too condemned the murder of Tavella. “We strongly condemn this violent attack and urge the law enforcement agencies to promptly investigate this barbaric aggression and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said a statement.
Detectives have been claiming since last year that the banned and newly-floated militant groups, having different ideologies and methods, were working together to unseat the incumbent democratic government with a view to establishing an Islamic state in Bangladesh with parts of Myanmar and India.
Their activities became visible after al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced early last year the formation of its South Asia wing styled “al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.”
Four secular activists have been killed since February this year allegedly by the members of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, believed to be a close ally of the al-Qaeda.
CCTV footage may help
Until last night, detectives had got no leads to solve the murder. They were interrogating witnesses including beggars to trace the assailants.
Witnesses said that the two assailants who had got down from the motorcycle were aged around 20 while the other was in his 30s. All of them appeared to be Bangladeshi nationals, they said.
After the murder, Gulshan police recovered belongings of Tavella from the spot. From this, they suspected that it was not an act of mugging but a pre-planned murder.
They collected footage of CCTV cameras installed in the area.
Police’s Rapid Action Battalion too collected CCTV footage from the nearby spots to identify the killers. “But we could not trace their faces from the footage,” a senior RAB official said seeking anonymity.
Police sources said that they were investigating why the street lamps had not been functioning at the time of the murder. A letter was sent yesterday to the Dhaka North City Corporation authorities enquiring about the matter.
According to the post-mortem examination report, Tavella received three bullets in the incident. One passed through his left shoulder and another through his back by creating exit wounds. The third one remained inside his chest and was removed by the doctor during the examination.
Assistant Professor Dr Kazi Mohammad Abu Shama, head of the forensic medicine department of Dhaka Medical College, conducted the examination yesterday afternoon.
The body was kept at the DMC mortuary, Gulshan police Sub-Inspector Sabbir Rahman said.