Militant’s wife orchestrated snatching of 2 convicts

Fatima Tasnim Shikha was integral to the plot to whisk away two convicted militants, including her husband, from the premises of a Dhaka court on November 20 last year.

Six months before the two members of banned militant group Ansar-Al-Islam were snatched from police custody, Shikha visited her husband Abu Siddiq Sohel in jail, and communicated the plan using signs, said Md Asaduzzaman, chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transitional Crime (CTTC) unit today.

A CTTC team in a raid nabbed Shikha, also a member of Ansar al-Islam, from Signboard area of Narayanganj last night along with a female associate who had been sheltering her.

While speaking to journalists regarding the arrests, Asaduzzaman said Sohel and Moinul Hasan Shamim, the other snatched militant, were hiding somewhere inside the country.

Asaduzzaman later said, according to information taken from Shikha during primary interrogation, Sohel visited the house from which she was arrested on several occasions following the snatching incident.

Sohel and Shamim were both sentenced to death for killing publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan in 2015.

When asked whether the two convicts' escape was an intelligence failure, the CTTC chief said it was not possible for police to know everything.

"The militants did it very secretly. When the husband and wife met in jail, they discussed about the plan using signs. They were able to do it while avoiding the attention of those of us who keep an eye on them," he said.

On November 20, Shikha was at the premises of Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court spot and after the two militants were snatched from police custody, she took them to an Ansar camp, the CTTC official said.

"The militants escaped on two separate motorcycles. It was monitored by Shikha and the outfit's military wing chief Ayman. Around 10 to 13 people took part in the snatching," he said.

Asaduzzaman said the plan to snatch the militants came from the top level of the banned organisation.

To execute the plan, members of Ansar al-Islam rented several houses in Dhaka and surrounding districts using fake NIDs.

Ayman and Shikha -- completed her Bachelors of Science in engineering from Military Institute of Science and Technology in 2014 -- held regular meetings with Ansar al-Islam members, Asaduzzaman said.

"Apart from this, we got the names of others who were part of the plan. But for the sake of investigation, we are not revealing their names," he added.

He said Shikha was introduced to the ideology of Ansar Al Islam through her brother Mozzammel Hossain alias Saimon and later married Sohel, who she came to know through her brother.

After getting married, she became a hardcore member of the banned outfit.