Ansarullah had eight hideouts in Dhaka, say investigators

Banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team set up eight hideouts in Dhaka to carry out killings of secular people, investigators claimed.

A group of 20 militants, which investigators dubbed “the killing squad,” maintained these hideouts. Police’s Counter-Terrorism and Trans National Crime Unit claimed to have garnered the “sensational information” from two suspected Ansarullah militants who were arrested during a recent drive.

“Last month, they planned to kill a blogger named Niloy who lives in Dhaka’s Azimpur,” CT chief Monirul Islam said, adding that the security forces had foiled the attempt.

On February 19, the Betective Branch and CT raided Badda’s Satarkul area and arrested suspected militants Shahin alis Jamal, 26, and Salahuddin alias Hiron, 30. Based on their information, the joint team raided Mohammadpur and Askona where they stumbled across a chart that outlined possible future Ansarullah attacks and recovered a large number of bombs.

Monirul told the Dhaka Tribune a few days back that they had already busted three of the hideouts and were looking for the others. Investigators said before killing secular persons, Ansarullah militants rented houses from where they monitored their target before making the final move.

“Getting addresses of houses rented by the militants before killing secular activists is a great success,” a senior DB official, who declined to be named, said.

Ansarullah has been associated with the killing of secular writers in Bangladesh. The DB officer said it was a matter of time before the militants were nabbed.

Detectives also claim that they have identified those involved in the killings of Daffodil University student Ashraful Alam, killed on September 30, 2014; and bloggers Avijit Roy, Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, Ananta Bijoy Das and Niladri Chatterjee Niloy. They declined to disclose information on the murder of Avijit’s publisher Foysal Arefin Dipan.

“We have got some sensational clues from the recent drives and by interrogating the arrestees. This will give us major breakthrough for solving the sensational blogger killing cases,” Monirul said.