Police: Sharif knew everything

The law enforcers now claim that a most wanted Ansarullah Bangla Team leader killed in a “gunfight” in Dhaka yesterday knew everything about the banned outfit’s operations. But it’s already too late. A military and IT trainer, Shariful alias Shakib alias Sharif alias Saleh alias Arif alias Hadi 1 was an important member of the group’s operations wing which sets the targets and plans the attacks. Police claimed that Sharif had direct or indirect involvement in all the attacks on secular bloggers, activists, publishers and LGBT rights activists, and was a prime accused in Mukto-Mona blog founder Avijit Roy murder case. Ansarullah, representing regional extremist platform al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in Bangladesh, has claimed 13 attacks since January 2013 in which 11 people have been killed and five wounded. The group has threatened more attacks on blasphemers in their struggle to establish Islamic rule in the country. Meanwhile, Avijit’s father has expressed doubt whether the law enforcers would be able to solve the case since a key accused has been killed before the investigators could get information from him. DB Joint commissioner Abdul Baten at a press conference yesterday said that the DMP on May 19 had announced Tk5 lakh bounty for fugitive Sharif. “He is the man killed in a gunfight with the police. We found his direct involvement in some of the murders.” Asked whether the death might hamper the probe, Baten said that the police had not killed him deliberately. It just happened. “We will be careful in the future. “We earlier arrested some of his associates. They will give information on the case,” he added. Avijit’s father Prof Ajoy Roy, a retired physics teacher of Dhaka University, alleged that the law enforcers had killed Sharif so that he could not expose the masterminds of the attacks. “More information could be collected from the killer. But through the killing, the scope of getting more information on the killings has been closed,” he said, adding that there are ghosts within the law enforcement agencies. Mashrukur Rahman Khaled, deputy commissioner of the detective branch (south zone), told the Dhaka Tribune that they already arrested a number of leaders and activists of the outlawed extremist group, and hoped that the key persons would be arrested soon. He said that after a plan was chalked, Sharif’s task was to rent a house in a different area, train the executioners and coordinating the attack being present on the spot. Another trainer Salim alias Iqbal alias Mamun alias Hadi 2, who is yet to be arrested, used to collect information about the targets and choose the executioners. Both Sharif and Salim had played vital role in motivating the attackers during the training period. They used to place arguments to justify the necessity of the murders, the deputy commissioner said. He added that they were conducting drives to arrest the planners and financiers of the group. Top spiritual leader of the banned outfit Jasim Uddin Rahmani, detained in several terrorism cases and sentenced in Ahmed Rajeeb Haider murder case, used to profess that those who demean Islam, Allah or the Prophet should be killed.