Saddam’s family claims they have known him to be under arrest since April last year, while a news report in a prominent Bengali-language daily from Saturday quotes police sources saying Marjan had been in custody since August.
In Kurigram, Saddam Hossain’s mother Sufia and brother Mizanur claimed to the Dhaka Tribune that Saddam was picked up from his in-law’s home in Sundarganj in Gaibandha by the police on April 14 last year. Since then all their attempts to make contact with Saddam had failed.
Police and RAB’s crossfire stories have been questioned for their coincidental circumstances before. However, the latest string of militants killed during a police operation has raised questions regarding the convenient circumstances from various quarters – nationally and internationally.
Tasneem Khalil, an international journalist specialising in terrorism, outright dismissed the idea that police had found Nurul Islam Marjan early Friday morning in Mohammadpur.
He wrote on his Facebook page on Friday morning: “Nurul Islam Marjan, a low-level ISIS operator, was executed by the CTTC last night. No matter what the newspapers reports, quoting the police or the home minister say, Marjan was in CTTC custody since August.”
The Dhaka Tribune could not independently assess these contentions from either side.
Several attempts to contact CT unit chief Monirul Islam for comments were unsuccessful.
This is not the first time the law enforcement has been accused of twisting their tale. Last December, the families of three militants arrested claimed they had been picked up months ago.
Families of Nazim Uddin, 42, of Jessore, Iftesham Ahmed Sami, 23, of Rangpur and Nure Alam of Nilphamari, claimed they were arrested between April and August.
The militants stated in a court deposition they were arrested from Dhaka, Rajshahi and Nilphamari by police in plainclothes. They also claimed to have been “planted” at the raided site.
Police had shown the five arrested in raids conducted in Chittagong on the night of December 8.
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