Dhaka: Police yesterday claimed to have arrested a close aide of Maj (sacked) Syed Ziaul Haq, the alleged military wing chief of the banned militant outfit Ansar al-Islam, in the capital’s Bhatara area.
Ashfaq-Ur-Rahman alias Ayon, an IT expert, used to gather information on the targeted bloggers and track their whereabouts by hacking into their social media accounts, Monirul Islam, chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said at a press conference at the DMP Media Centre.
A team of CTTC officials arrested the 24-year-old around 7:15pm Monday after he reached the capital from Sylhet, said Monirul.
However, Ashfaq’s family members claimed a group of eight people, identifying themselves as detectives, picked him up from a mess in Bhatara on February 12.
CTTC officials also claimed to have seized a laptop, a mobile phone, a training manual on killing bloggers and some books that provoke extremism from his possession.
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday placed the arrestee on five-day remand, said court sources.
Talking to The Daily Star, Monirul said the militant outfit, infamous for killing secular bloggers and writers, executed one or two of their targeted men based on Ashfaq’s information. However, police foiled an attempt on a blogger’s life in the capital’s Rampura early last year.
Ashfaq used to work under close supervision of fugitive Maj (sacked) Zia. He met the former army official outside the capital several months ago. The two last communicated around three months ago, the CTTC chief said.
Asked about Zia’s whereabouts, he said they needed to grill Ashfaq further as he didn’t give them recent information about the sacked army official.
Zia is stated by police to be the mastermind of attacks on secular bloggers and writers, including Ahmed Rajib Haider, Avijit Roy and Oyashiqur Rahman. The police headquarters has declared a Tk 20 lakh bounty on his head.
Talking to reporters, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan earlier said Zia was under the surveillance of law enforcement agencies and would be arrested anytime.
A student of the computer science and technology department at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Ashfaq joined the militant group in 2014 and its the military wing the following year. Later, he took training in the capital’s Pallabi and Uttara.
According to Monirul, although Ashfaq was trained in carrying out militant operations, he used to look after the IT affairs of the Ansar al-Islam’s military wing.
The outfit also has recruitment and publicity or media wings with separate IT experts, said CTTC officials.
Monirul said leaders of the militant outfit went into hiding as some of their arrested accomplices disclosed their names to law enforcers. The leaders were recruiting new operatives and training them, he added.
FAMILY CONTRADICTS POLICE’S CLAIM: Ashfaq’s father Khijirur Rahman, a resident of Halishahar in Chittagong, yesterday said his son used to work for an IT firm in the capital. The family members visited him at the Bhatara mess, but he had been out of touch with the family since February 12.
“We again went to his mess on February 16. His roommates told us that a group of eight people, identifying themselves as detectives, picked him up around 5:00pm on February 12,” Khijirur told this correspondent over the phone.
The family members went to the DMP DB office and different police stations, but the law enforcer denied picking him up.
They also went to Bhatara Police Station to file a GD about the incident, but police refused to record it.
“Around a month later, some DMP officials told us that Ashfaq was in their custody,” Khijirur said.
After passing SSC and HSC exams from Chittagong Collegiate School and Chittagong City College, Ashfaq got admitted to SUST. He left the university last year when he was in his final year of the Honour’s course, reports our correspondent in Noakhali, the home district of Khijirur.
Asked why he was not attending classes, Ashfaq told his family members that he was not feeling safe on the campus as some of his university friends were arrested by police.
Ashfaq left Chittagong for Dhaka in October last year to take a job. He used to communicate with his family members via Skype.
“Using a mobile phone is risky for me,” Khijirur quoted his son as saying. He said his son was a bright student and his family had high hopes for him.http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/ansar-al-islams-it-expert-arrested-1399645
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