Detectives suspect that Islamist militant organisations, especially the notorious Ansarullah Bangla Team, have been using “sleeper cells” or “cut outs” for killing missions, to keep their leaders from incriminating themselves.
In this style, believed to be applied first during the murder of blogger-architect Ahmed Rajeeb Haider in 2013, the top leaders delegate responsibility of an operation to a field-level commander who picks up members to form the execution team through co-workers.
During a mission, the foot soldiers communicate with the commander through special coded messages.
Even if the killers get arrested, the law enforcers cannot glean information from them about the mastermind, since the arrestees have no idea about the top leaders, a senior official of the police intelligence told the Dhaka Tribune, requesting anonymity.
“This way, the killers never know the names of the leaders,” the official added.
Ansarullah Bangla Team was the first militant outfit to use buffers to insulate their top leadership from field operations, according to intelligence officials.
Although ABT chief Jasim Uddin Rahmani is now in jail, other leaders of the fanatic group have been carrying out killings and attacks in full swing with the support of some technologically-savvy members of the group, officials say.
Ansarullah claimed responsibilities for the killing of blogger Rajeeb, Rajshahi University teacher Prof AKM Shariful Islam, Daffodil University student Ashraful Islam, and latest victim blogger-science writer Avijit Roy.
They made their claims through Twitter and Facebook accounts under Ansar Al Islam, Ansar Al Islam Bangladesh 2 and Ansar Bangla 7.
Law enforcers suspect that US citizen Avijit and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonna were attacked by several sleeper cells, each having three to seven members, in TSC area of Dhaka University on February 26.
“No matter who executed the plan, the mastermind of the attack belongs to ABT,” a senior officer of DB police said.
Ansarullah’s name also came up following attacks on bloggers Asif Mohiuddin and Rakib Mamun.
Sources in the DB police explain that militant outfits generally collect members from madrasas. But the ABT and banned group Hizb ut-Tahrir target private university students who belong to well-off families and are more technologically adept.
Law enforcers have gathered this information from seven ABT members, students of North South University who were arrested in 2013 after Rajeeb’s murder. One of the masterminds, Redwanul Azad Rana, still remains beyond the police radar.
Rana is a suspected mastermind in the Avijit killing too. He got a coded SMS around 8pm on February 26, when Avijit and Bonna were about to leave the book fair. Rana passed on that message to two members of the cell ordering them to launch the attack.
The former NSU student got a confirmation once the mission was complete. Investigators are now trying to arrest him.
Intelligence sources say Ansarullah currently has around 300 university students, especially from private universities.
Ansarullah ban likely
When asked about taking action against the ABT, DB chief Monirul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune they were thinking about having the outfit banned. “We are now working to trace the root of the outfit,” said the DB joint commissioner, who has been dealing with militant issues for a long time.
A total of eight cases were filed against Ansarullah since 2013, of which five were under the Information and Communication Technology Act. A total of 23 members were arrested, but seven are out on bail.
So far five Islamist groups have been banned, namely Shahadat-e-al Hikma, JMB, JMJB, Huji, and Hizb ut-Tahrir.
