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Bangladesh police: Canadian citizen behind Dhaka deadly hostage crisis

Saturday, 30 July 2016 12:06 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 30 July 2016 12:47 PM ]

Bangladeshi police patrol the area near the house where police killed nine suspected militants in Dhaka on July 26, 2016, in a gun-battle after storming a hideout where they said a new mass attack was being planned. (AFP)

Bangladesh police said Saturday a Canadian citizen was one of the masterminds involved in the deadly hostage crisis of early July at a café in the capital Dhaka.

The police said Tamim Chowdhury, a dual Canadian-Bangladeshi national, was one of the masterminds behind the mass killing that claimed the lives of 20 people.

Officers with knowledge of an investigation into the killings and other recent assaults said the man, whose whereabouts are unknown and is believed to be in his early 30s, has led a faction of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a militant group which Bangladesh blames for scores of incidents where foreigners and religious minorities were murdered.

Counter-terrorism officials say Chowdhury returned to Bangladesh from Canada three years ago. He has since led and financed efforts to radicalize young people, the officials said.

“So far what we learnt is that Tamim Chowdhury is one of the masterminds of the attacks of Gulshan cafe and Sholakia Eid prayer ground,” said an officer, whose name was not mentioned in the report.

Five assailants stormed the upscale cafe in the Gulshan neighbourhood on July 1 and killed 20 hostages. It was the deadliest single militant attack in Bangladesh. A week later, gunmen attacked a gathering of 250,000 people who had convened for Eid prayers to mark the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The attackers killed three people there.

Militants involved in the two assaults as well as suspected militants killed during a recent police operation had received training from Chowdhury, the officer added.

On July 26, police launched a mass raid on the hideouts of militants in Kalyanpur district of Dhaka, killing nine and arresting one militant. The one nabbed in the operation, identified as Rakibul Hasan, 25, has reportedly revealed details about Chowdhury. Hasan has told investigators that he and his nine colleagues received from Chowdhury “money, explosives and weapons” and that Chowdhury “trained and advised” them.

He has said during the interrogation that Chowdhury used to visit their flat and “give them necessary funds” and encourage them.

Bangladesh has also blamed the JMB for a string of deadly assaults which have triggered concerns about the rise of Daesh, a Takfiri terrorist group based in Iraq and Syria, in Bangladesh. Officials have rejected claims that Daesh has managed to gain a foothold in the country.

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