Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit chief Monirul Islam said Ansar Al-Islam may be involved in the killing of Shahjahan Bachchu.
He made the statement while talking to journalists at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Media Centre on Friday.
Monirul said after the incident, two of the CTTC teams visited the spot – one to investigate and the other a team of explosives experts.
“After scrutinizing eyewitness’ accounts, along with information extracted from arrested Ansar Al-Islam members and Shahjahan’s profile, we suspect that this is the work of a militancy group and are probing into the matter,” he added.
All the previous Ansar Al-Islam murders were done by sharp weapons. When asked about their first use of firearms, Monirul Islam said: “In 2013, Ansar Al-Islam operatives tried to murder a blogger called Rakib Mamun in Mohammadpur using homemade firearms. When their attempt was botched because of the flaws in the weapon, they decided to resort to machetes.”
“On quizzing the members of the terrorist outfit it was revealed that they prefer machetes as these do not fall under the Arms Act, can be kept at home, and used effectively in a melee,” he added.
After murdering Rajib, the group attempted to murder Asif Mohiuddin and killed Washiqur Rahman Babu. During the assault on the latter, two of their operatives were caught by the public. This incident caused them to rethink their strategy. They later used firearms when they attempted to murder Lalmatia-based publisher Tutul. However, they mainly use firearms to protect themselves, said the CTTC chief.
As the place where they murdered Shahjahan Bachchu was crowded, they chose to use guns instead of machetes. When people tried to chase them, they threw crude bombs to get away.
Monirul also said that the motivation for this murder was no different than that of the past.
