A prison authority probe found the Islamic State (IS) logo-emblazoned skull caps worn by the two Holey Artisan attack convicts, Rakibul Islam Regan and Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, after their sentencing, were not supplied from jail.
“What we found was that those skull caps were not brought from the prison to the courtroom,” said the head of the probe committee, Additional Inspector General of Prisons Colonel Md Abrar Hossain, to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“They were actually supplied by an unknown civilian inside the courtroom,” he added.
However, their probe did not ascertain the identity of the supplier, as this was beyond the prison probe committee’s jurisdiction, Colonel Abrar explained. “Our job was to determine if someone from within the prison provided those skull caps.”
The probe committee interrogated the convicts, checked closed circuit camera (CCTV) footage, and spoke to prison officials before they made their determination. “We even checked the hollow inside of Regan’s crutch before and after their sentencing.” Holey Artisan attack
The probe report will be handed over to Inspector General of Prisons, Brig Gen A K M Mustafa Kamal, today.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) Detective Branch (DB) Joint Commissioner (JC) Mahbub Alam earlier said that after a primary investigation, those infamous caps were most likely brought by the convicts from prison.
DMP also formed a three member probe committee led by Detective Branch’s (DB) Joint Commissioner (JC) Mahbub Alam on Thursday, to investigate the incident. The committee has been told to submit the report by December 2.
Regan and Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, wore the caps when they were hauled back into a van to be returned to prison from the court premises after the verdict on the Holey Artisan attack case was pronounced on Wednesday.
As soon as a Dhaka court finished delivering the judgement in Bangladesh’s worst ever terrorist attack case yesterday, Rakibul Islam alias Regan, wore an IS-emblazoned cap.
Rakibul still had the cap on when police brought him out of the courtroom and took him to a prison van. Inside the van, another death row convict Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi was seen wearing a similar cap.
