Escape of 2 convicts: Leader of attack 'identified'

The man who led the attack to whisk away two death-row convicts from the court premises in Dhaka yesterday has been identified, a top counterterrorism official said today.

For the sake of the investigation, the name of the person cannot be disclosed now, said Asaduzzaman, chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

"We have identified the leader of this attack. Some of his accomplices have been identified too. But for the sake of the investigation, those names cannot be revealed," he said in a press conference at the DMP media centre this evening.

Earlier in the morning, Mohammad Harun Or Rashid, additional commissioner of the Detective Branch of DMP, told reporters that the two death-row convicts who were whisked away from yesterday are under surveillance of law enforces.

"We will be able to arrest them at any time," he added.

Sacked army Major Syed Ziaul Haque alias Maj Zia, sentenced to death over the killing of writer Avijit Roy, planned and masterminded the snatching of the militants from police custody, he said.

"A case was filed against 20 persons following this incident. We are trying to arrest all of them," the DB chief also said.

Unidentified persons attacked  police personnel and snatched away two operatives of the banned militant outfit Ansar Al Islam from the Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate's court premises.

Only four were escorting 12 militants, including death-row convicts ---Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Samir alias Imran and Abu Siddiq Sohel—from the court premises.

The two convicts were among eight militants sentenced to death by a Dhaka Anti-Terrorism Tribunal in February last year for murdering Jagriti Publications publisher Dipan in 2015.