Zikrullah and Ariful Islam, detained for killing liberal online activist Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, have been involved with banned Islamist outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh since 2008.
They were given military training at a madrasa, in a remote area of Kacharikanthi in Raipura upazila of Narsingdi, Special Branch officials said in a confidential report submitted to the Police Headquarters recently.
Zikrullah’s three maternal uncles – Osman, Bhurhan and Sultan – also work at the madrasa as trainers. They used to recruit poor people for the JMB and train them at the madrasa.
A student of Miftahul Ulum madrasa was killed in infighting on July 31, 2012. Later the police raided the madrasa and arrested 12 teachers and students including Zikrullah and Arif. The duo was named in the case filed in this connection by Raipura police on August 1, 2012.
But all the arrestees got bail and have remained absconding since then.
Zikrullah’s friend Arif hails from Munshiganj.
However, the Detective Branch officials earlier said only Arif had been involved with the JMB.
The DB also said Zikrullah was a current student of Chittagong’s Hathazari Madrasa run by Hefazat-e-Islam while Arif joined Mirpur Darul Ulum Madrasa after completing studies at the Hathazari Madrasa.
Narsingdi police suspect that since the trained cohorts of Zikrullah are absconding, they may launch attack on targets any time.
The probe body found that the militants had been given special training at the madrasa. They were even trained to climb down from trees upside down, swimming with bricks tied to their hands and launching an assault while riding a horse in full gallop.
“We have forwarded the report to the Police Headquarters for better investigation of Oyasiqur murder case,” Narsingdi Police Superintendent Amena Begum told the Dhaka tribune yesterday.
