Malaysian police have said that the Bangladeshi expatriate who they arrested last month and later deported used to meet his countrymen at his restaurant in Kuala Lumpur and plan terrorist attacks.
Peyar Ahmed Akash, 37, of Feni used his restaurant Rasana Bilash in Bukit Bintang as a meeting place for terrorists, Malaysian Star Online website reported yesterday quoting a police source.
A former Shibir leader and brother-in-law of Feni district unit Jamaat-e-Islami's Nayeb-e-Amir Abu Yusuf, Akash was arrested a decade ago in Bangladesh for arms trading. He later left the country securing bail with the help of Yusuf.
“The country’s [Malaysian] authorities believe that the suspected person used to plan for terrorist attack in Bangladesh. And he also used to meet his countrymen for that reason,” the source said.
Akash was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on August 19 for smuggling weapons for an international terror group and deported to Bangladesh on September 2. The following day, DB police handed him over to Dagonbhuiyan police. Jamaat leader Yusuf again managed the police to provide Akash extra facilities while in custody.
Also read: Bangladeshi held in Malaysia for terror link deported
On September 4, he was shown arrested in the arms case as an absconder and sent to jail through the District Joint Sessions Judge’s Court. The court has so far recorded depositions of 14 out of the 19 witnesses.
RAB arrested him for selling off four AK47 rifles – stolen from the 10-truck arms seized on September 18, 2005 – to Delwar alias Azrail Delwar, a listed terrorist linked to Islami Chhatra Shibir.
'Andaleeb is innocent'
The Malaysian newspaper also said that at his restaurant Akash had met with Andaleeb Ahmed, who Star Online claims was involved in the July 1 Gulshan terror attack by New JMB that killed 23 people including 17 foreigners. The attack was later claimed by Islamic State.
The government, however, maintains that there is no organisational base of IS in Bangladesh, and that the attacks were carried out by a faction of banned militant group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Andaleeb was linked to Monash University in Malaysia. He stayed in Kuala Lumpur from 2012 to 2015 and later in Istanbul. His father Ashraf Uddin Ahmed Chunnu said that Andaleeb returned to Dhaka on December 21, 2015.
“He has no link to militancy. He has been assisting in my business since then,” Chunnu told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He said that Andaleeb was a classmate of Nibras Ahmed, one of the five terrorists who attacked the Gulshan restaurant, at Monash University. Nibras was killed in a commando operation on July 2.
After the Gulshan attack, law enforcers found that several Bangladeshi youths linked to Monash University had joined local militant groups.
Investigators say a yet unidentified “big brother” used to meet with the Bangladeshi students at Monash University and motivate them towards extremism. Identity of the “big brother” could not be known.
Several top militants have fled to Malaysia in the recent months after law enforcers launched crackdown. Moreover, detectives say financiers and patronisers of some militant groups are currently staying in Malaysia.
Another Monash University student Tausif Hossain, killed in a raid in Narayanganj on August 27, was a friend of Nibras. Both ran away from home on the same day – February 3 this year.
Two others – Abdul Aziz and Foysal Rashid Khan – who reportedly had close links to Nibras have also gone missing.
Banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team leaders Tamim Al Adnani and Redwanul Azad Rana are also believed to be hiding in Malaysia at the moment.