Missing militant brothers post IS-style photo on Facebook

Wanted by the police for militant ties, two brothers who have been missing since December last year have posted a photo on Facebook of them and an unidentified third party posing with an IS flag and guns. The three are also holding drinking glasses in their hands filled with an unidentifiable dark liquid. Ibrahim Hasan Khan, a high school graduate from Saudi Arabia and resident of Bashundhara area in Dhaka, posted the photo as his profile picture around 10pm Wednesday. He is the one sitting in the middle wearing black shades. On his right is his brother Junayed Hossain. The one on Ibrahim's other side could not be identified immediately. Screenshot of Ibrahim Hasan's Facebook page

All clad in black, the photo is reminiscent of the Gulshan attackers and the militants killed in Kallyanpur raid who claimed themselves as IS supporters, except that the three here are holding glasses, apparently of beverage, instead of guns.

---

Also read: 31 ‘IS supporters’ killed in 10 months

---

In the photo, a rifle is seen kept beside the chair of Ibrahim, who appears to be the leader of the group, while another rifle, two pistols, two magazines of ammunition and a mobile phone rest on the table in front of them.

The photo, however, bears no caption or location details.

The siblings came into limelight after the horrific July 1 Gulshan attack in which 23 people including 17 foreigners were killed by five militants posing as IS supporters. The brothers’ names appeared on the elite force’s list of missing youths with suspected militant links.

Police later said they were looking for the two and 10 others, all accomplices of Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the Gulshan attack mastermind killed in a raid in Narayanganj on August 27 this year.

Ibrahim and Junayed’s father Munir Hasan is an expatriate in Saudi Arabia. According to his Facebook profile, which was last updated in October 2015, Munir Hasan works at Al Faisaliah Hotel in Riyadh.

Ibrahim studied at Bangladesh International School in Saudi Arabia. Their flat in Bashundhara residential area remains vacant as according to media reports the family has been living abroad for the last one year.

Before posting this photo, Ibrahim remained inactive on the Facebook for more than a year. His last public post on the social media was on July 13, 2015.

When contacted, a senior RAB official told the Dhaka Tribune that nothing could be said about the matter before verifying the information.

The profile picture has since been removed but an archived copy of the page can be found here.