The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Bangladesh police on Friday arrested two people, including the key coordinator for their involvement in the escape of two death row militants, from court premises in Dhaka.
One of the arrestees is fugitive militant Md Abu Siddique Sohel's wife Shikha, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the incident, Additional Commissioner of CTTC Asaduzzaman said.
The police is yet to reveal the identity of the other arrestee.
“Shikha, the wife of escaped militant Sohel has been arrested from Narayanganj. Apart from that, a person who gave shelter to her has also been arrested. An operation is being conducted to arrest the fugitive militants alongside them,” he added.
The CTTC officer also said that details will be given after the operation.
On December 2022, a Dhaka court sent eight people to jail after the end of their remand in a case lodged over the incident.
Abu Siddique Sohel alias Sajid alias Sihab and Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Sifat Bangla TribuneThey are - Khairul Islam alias Jamil, Mozammel Hossain alias Saimon, Arafat Rahman alias Shams, Sheikh Abdullah alias Jubayer, Sobur alias Sad, Omar Faruk, Mir Faridul Haque and Mohammad Hanif.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Shanto Islam Mollik passed the order as police produced them before the court after the end of their remand and pleaded to keep them behind the bars till the end of the probe in the case.
Death-row convicts Abu Siddiq Sohel and Moinul Hasan Shamim, members of the banned militant outfit Ansar-al Islam, were whisked away by their associates by beating police and spraying some chemicals on their eyes at Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court arena on November 20, 2022.
They were convicted in the murder of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan.
Dipan was brutally hacked to death at the Jagriti Prokashony office on the second floor of Aziz Super Market in Shahbagh on October 31, 2015.
A murder case was filed at Shahbagh police station two days later against unidentified assailants.
