Bangladesh yesterday announced that the masterminds of Dhaka cafe attack have been identified and they will be arrested soon.
“Those behind the planning have been identified and now it’s a matter of time to arrest them. We’ve information about those involved in the attack and how they carried out the attack,” said Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said.
“The law enforcement agencies are conducting drives based on specific information, and they’ll be brought to book soon as some important evidence has been seized,” he said.
“We have cracked the case of the Holey Artisan (Bakery) attack. Arrests will be made soon. The process is on,” said the police commissioner.
He claimed it is now clear who had orchestrated the attack and how.
“We will be able to nab them soon. Police are working based on specific information.”
On July 1, gunmen stormed Gulshan’s Holey Artisan Bakery and took guests and employees hostage. Twenty bodies, including nine of Italians and seven Japanese nationals, were recovered from the crime scene the following day.
The crisis ended following an army-led joint forces’ operation -‘Operation Thunderbolt’. Two policemen and six militants, of whom one later appeared to be a staff of the Bakery who might have not been involved in the attack, were also killed.
Meanwhile, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said the attorney general himself can take initiative to form a special cell to monitor cases against militants.
“He can form the cell at his office headed by an additional attorney general. I will talk to him about this,” said the minister.
On July 19, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam called for forming a co-ordination cell to give information to his office and office of the public prosecutor to stop militants getting bail from court.
“There should be a co-ordination cell. We need a system where the names of the militants will be posted. The public prosecutors in different districts can see the names once they logged into their computers. The system should be open for my office too, so that my officials and I can see the names of the accused in different cases in different districts,” the top law officer said.
On the other hand, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) chairman Iqbal Mahmood said illegal money, accumulated through corruption, is being used in spreading militancy.
“If illegal money is not used in militancy, from where such huge money is coming to foreign bank accounts,” he said.
Identifying economic terrorism and militancy as major threats to today’s world, Mahmood said, adding that nobody will remain safe in the future if both cannot be addressed
effectively.
Vowing to take all-out steps to prevent corruption from society, he said the commission will take opinion from all sections of society to do so.
About black money, the ACC chief said it is a ‘big hole of corruption’ and many people, including tax offices, are involved in it.
Stressing the need for conducting probes into cases of black money, he said the ACC will soon send specific recommendations to the government in this regard.