A visit to militant Zia’s village home

The large compound of the home, consisting of four tin-shed buildings with three to four rooms each, is surrounded by a boundary wall at Mostafapur village under Mostafapur union on the outskirt of Moulvibazar town. All the rooms of three of the buildings were locked, while two caretakers, a driver of a private car of Zia’s father Zillul Haq, and a distant maternal uncle of Zia live in the other building. After entering the paternal house of Zia through the gate, which was open, our correspondent tried to talk to the men residing there, but nobody came out of their rooms. The driver went out of the house soon after he saw the correspondent. After half an hour, a man showed up and talked to the Dhaka Tribune, introducing himself as a distant maternal uncle of Zia, the sacked army major. Zia, the only son of his parents living in Dhaka, had not visited his village home for last seven to eight years, said the uncle named Muhib. But Zia’s father visits the house at times. Three to four days before this year’s Eid –ul-Fitr, Zillul, who has two daughters also, came here for giving Jakat and then returned Dhaka, Muhib said. He has a car here, which he uses during his visits to the village, added Muhib.Zia has one son from his first wife, who died of cancer, and two children from his second wife hailing from Patuakhali, he said. Muhib also informed that Zia passed his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations from Uttara Holy Child School and College in Dhaka after he left Moulvibazar for Dhaka with his parents. Then he completed his Higher Secondary Certificate examinations from Sylhet Cadet College. Nobody had ever guessed that he could be involved in militancy or any other subversive activities, commented the man. Zia has become talk of the town after police declared TK20 lakh bounty on him. Though there is much curiosity among the people of the town about him, neighbours were reluctant to talk about him. Our correspondent tried to talk to them, but they denied talking about Zia. Mostafapur Union Chairman Rumel Ahmed said Zia has two sisters who also live in Dhaka and three paternal uncles in London. He refused to make any comment on Zia. Police claimed that Zia is the key person of the pro-Al-Quaeda outfit Ansar Al Islam here. Ansarullah is believed to be representing al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in Bangladesh. Its members have carried out 13 attacks since 2013 and killed 11 people including war crimes trial campaigners, secular writers and LGBT rights activists. Zia masterminded the murder of Faisal Arefin Dipan because the Jagriti Prokashoni publisher had brought out a book by slain secular writer-blogger Avijit Roy, a key suspect in the case has told police. He was sacked in 2012 while trying to engineer a military coup and made headlines.