42 still missing over alleged militancy involvement

Mohammad Mohibur Rahman, a former army officer, has been missing for more than a year. Symun Hasib (Monaz), son of a former secretary has also been missing for over two and a half years. There’s no trace of marine engineer Najibullah Ansari either. Law enforcement agencies and family sources of the missing youths said they might have gone to Syria or Iraq to fight for the Islamic State (IS).

According to a investigations and information from the law enforcing agencies, 42 people who left the country in the name of the hizrat are still missing.

At least 33 people, involved in militancy, left their homes over the last three years. Of them, 23 went to Syria or Iraq and four of them have already been killed there. The IS published photos of their dead bodies at different times. Another four people accused of involvement with Al-Qaeda, disappeared after leaving Dhaka for Malaysia. More than six people have reportedly left the country and it is not known where they have gone.

Other than that, as many as 13 out of many other youths, who might have joined militant activities inside the country leaving their homes in the name of hizrat, are reportedly missing.

The disappearance of young people came into the limelight after the deadly terrorist attack at Holey Artisan restaurant in Gulshan on 1 July last year. Twenty-two people, including nine Italians, seven Japanese and one Indian, were killed in the attack. The five attackers involved in the terrorist attack had gone missing after disappearing within the country.

Following the incident, the law enforcers started searching for missing people. The police headquarters then asked the educational institutions of the countries to send a list of missing students who had been absent from the institutions for long.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) published a list of 262 missing people 18 days after the Holey Artisan Cafe attack. The list, published in the media, was full of errors and RAB published a revised list on 25 July for the second time and 9 August for the third. RAB's latest list included 70 people. The list, too, comprised names of some people who were victims of human trafficking and those who left families over family feuds.

Later, 25 people out of the 70 disappeared people were found accused of involvement with militant activities. Two of them JMB's top leader Tamim Chowdhury and his associate Tausif Hossain have already been killed in police raids on 27 August last year.

A total of 17 on the RAB list are outside the country. The names and photographs of 10 people were published in the media after Gulshan cafe attack.

Six more people on RAB list were found involved in the militancy and they left their homes for this purpose.

They are Sadman Hossain (Papon), a resident of Lalbagh area of Dhaka, Akram Hossain, a second year student of Dhaka College's physics department, Shariful Islam and Md Basharuzzaman alias Chocolate, students of English department of Rajshahi University, Tajul Islam Chowdhury, college student of Jhingabari village of Kanaighat upazila, Sylhet and Hossain Ahmad of Naktipara village of the district. Police said, among them, Basharuzzaman is a key leader of 'neo-JMB'. His wife Shaila Afrin, 23, was arrested from a militant hideout in Azimpur of the capital city on 10 September last year.

Other than the RAB's list of the alleged militants, more than 18 people, who went on missing before and after the Gulshan cafe attack, allegedly involved with militancy, were also named.

Disappeared while studying in Japan

Mohibur Rahman, who is number 1 suspect on the latest missing list of RAB, went missing from Japan where he went for higher education. Mohibur passed the Higher Secondary examination from Sylhet Cadet College in 2004. Later, he joined the Bangladesh Army and retired as an army captain. In August, 2013, he left the country for Japan for higher education.

Mohibur Rahman's father Abdus Sobhan was also a retired army officer. Abdus Sobhan filed a general diary (GD) with Joydebpur police station of Gazipur on 25 July last year over disappearance of his son.

Mohibur's house is near Gazipur intersection. His family lives in a three-storey building there. On 14 May, Mohibur's father, his mother and elder brother talked to this reporter about the matter.

Abdus Sobhan said Mohibur married a Bangladeshi UK immigrant while serving as an army officer. He took his wife to Japan nearly six months after he went there. After another six months, he sent his expectant wife to the UK to have their child.

According to several sources, including law enforcing agencies, Mohibur went to Japan with the help of another Bangladeshi migrant in Japan Saifullah Ozaki. Ozaki, a former student of Sylhet Cadet College, was an associate professor in the international relations department at Risuman University of Japan. International media reports that Ozaki went to Syria with his Japanese wife and children. A former student of Faujdarhat Cadet College and engineer of DESCO, Gazi Kamruzz Salam Sohan, came back home from Syria. Sohan who went to Syria through Ozaki is now in Bangladesh prison. In a deposition, Sohan revealed Ozaki's IS link.

Ozaki and Delwar from same village

Delwar Hossain, of Karaibari village of Nabinagar upazila, Brahmanbaria went to Japan through Saifullah Ozaki. Ozaki and Delwar are from the same village in the Brahmanbaria district. Delwar returned home on 23 April this year. He disappeared after landing at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. Delwar's father Abdur Rauf filed a general diary with the airport police station in connection with the missing of his son on the very next day.

Abdur Rouf, who is a member of Nabinagar thana unit of Awami League and chairman of Zinadpur Union Parishad, told Prothom Alo on Wednesday that his son went to Japan in 2006 on a scholarship. Ozaki and Delwar were studying in separate universities in the same area of Japan and they lived in the same dormitory.

After completing his studies in 2010, Delwar went to another province of Japan with a job at a motor company.

Abdur Rauf thought that his son was picked up by an intelligence agency because of his association with Ozaki.

More disappear outside the country

Musician Tahmid Rahman Shafi and his wife Sayma Khan went to Malaysia on 23 April in 2015. According to the law enforcers, the couple moved to the IS-held area in ​​Syria after staying three months there. Doctor Arafat Hossain (Tushar) left the country in December 2014. Five days after the Holey Artisan attack, Tahmid and Arafat congratulated the Holey Artisan cafe attackers in a video message. It has been known that the video clip was shot in the Syria's Rakka, the IS-held area.

Former student of Rajshahi Cadet College and marine engineer Nazibullah Ansari was disappeared for nearly two and a half years ago. Nazibullah graduated from Malaysian Marine Academy. Later, he joined a ship after receiving training from the United States.

Nazibullah's father Rafiqullah Ansari, a retired member of Bangladesh Navy, filed a GD with Chittagong EPZ police station on 10 July last year. The GD statement reads that Nazibullah wrote to his brother through Facebook messenger January last year that he had left for Iraq to join the IS. He would not come back.

Paediatrician Rokonuddin Khandakar, his wife Naima Akhter, two daughters Rezwana Rokon and Ramitra Rokon and a husband of a daughter Saad Kayes, have been missing since June 2015.

Rokonuddin's elder brother Hafiz Uddin said, 'I have no idea where they are staying now.

ATM Tajuddin of Lakshmipur went to Australia. Australian media report said he had gone to Syria from there.

Police assumed that barrister AKM Takir Rahman, son of a Bogra businessman, and his wife Ridita Rahela with their one-and-a-half-year-old child left for Syria.

Not only for the IS ideology, it has been known that Junnun Sikder, a member of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, a self-styled al-Qaeda ideology follower, also went to Syria.

North South University student Syed Mohammad Ghalib and his brother and teacher of Scholastica School Sayed Mohammad Rajib, Saudi Arabia expatriate Ibrahim Hasan Khan and his brother Junaid Hasan Khan, Ridwan Islam (Tuhin), a former student of computer science department of Dhaka University and Ashulia's Abdur Rahman Masud, have also left the country.

Moinuddin Sharif, a resident of capital city's Kathalbagan, his wife Tania Sharif, his mother Panna Sharif and brother Rezwan Sharif left Dhaka for for Malaysia. Now on one knows where they are staying. Among them, Moinuddin and Rezwan were arrested in 2010 in Yemen during anti-Al-Qaeda raids. Later, they were sent back to Bangladesh. The siblings were under intelligence surveillance for long.

More disappearing inside the country

As many as 13 others have been missing inside the country. The list includes band artiste Jubayedur Rahim, Saima Akter (Mukta) of Gopalganj, Ashraf Mohammad Islam of Panthapath of Dhaka city, Sabbirul Haque Chowdhury (Konik), a student of the Chittagong International Islamic University, Abdus Samad and Abdul Barik, residents of Ballabhpur area of Nawabganj upazila, Dinajpur, Rubel and Imranul Islam of Mirsarai upazila of Chittagong, Jasim of Chandanaish, Sayed Anwar Khan, a student of Chittagong Grammar School.

Asked about this propensity to go missing, security analyst Brigadier General (retd.) M Sakhawat Hossain told Prothom Alo that the matter is mysterious. It has been seen that some are coming back months after they disappeared. Families of some of them who were killed during raids, claimed law enforcers allegedly picked them up earlier. Thus, it is difficult to say exact number of the missing people.

He said it is a matter of concern that youths are go missing because of their involvement in militancy. The law enforcing agencies must be very careful about those who are missing.

Source: Prothom Alo