Ramna Batamul Carnage: Death row convict hides as Imam for 14 years

The Rapid Action Battalion claimed to have arrested a fugitive death row convict in the 2001 Ramna Batamul carnage case, who had changed his name and had been living in a remote char in Narsingdi as an Imam since 2008.

The convict, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman alias Abdul Karim alias Shafiqul Islam, 61, was apprehended in a drive conducted by the members of RAB-2 in Bhairab upazila of Kishoreganj on Thursday.

"During primary interrogation, the arrestee has admitted to his involvement in the Ramna Batamul bombing," Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of RAB's legal and media wing, said at a press briefing at the RAB media centre on Friday.

Shafiqur had taken the name Abdul Karim and even managed to collect an NID card with the new name to dodge the eyes of the law enforcers, said Moin.

Mufti Shafiqur also confessed that he came in contact with Mufti Hannan, then head of the banned militant organisation Harkat-ul-Jihad, when he had gone to study at Yusuf Bin Nuri Madrasah in Karachi, Pakistan in 1987, the RAB official said.

While on a subsequent trip to Afghanistan from Pakistan, he became involved with the militant group. After returning to Bangladesh, he formed the militant organisation Harkat-ul-Jihad (B).

From 1990 to 1993, he served as the publicity secretary of the militant group and then he was the Amir of the group until 1996. He was a member of Harkat-ul-Jihad's Shura, executive body of the organisation, in 1997-2003.

Shafiqur was involved in the 2001 Ramna Batamul bombing on Pahela Baishakh, the 21 August grenade attack in 2004, and killing of five people, including former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria, in Habiganj on 27 January 2005.

From 2001 to 2008, after the attack on Ramna Batamul, he remained secretly associated with the organisation. After that, he stayed at a madrasa in Narsingdi from 2008 and later went into hiding.

While in Narsingdi, Shafiqur was using the name Abdul Karim and used to work as an Imam at a local mosque for a salary of Tk5,000. He used to meet his family members at different locations.

"Legal action against the arrestee is underway," said the RAB official.

Mufti Shafiqur was also sentenced to life term imprisonment in a case filed after the 21 August grenade attack on a rally of the then opposition Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka in 2004, said Commander Moin.

Shafiqur stopped communicating with his family members and relatives after going into hiding in 2008 in Narsingdi. Before that, he had stayed at various places, Moin said, adding that he, however, occasionally met his son.

"Shafiqur was not directly involved with the militant outfit in recent times but he used to preach misleading and inciting speeches in the name of religion in his locality," the RAB Commander said, adding that he was one of the planners in the Ramna Batamul blasts.

Ten people were killed and dozens were injured after two bombs went off during the celebrations of Bangla New Year 1408 on 14 April 2001.

In June 2014, a Dhaka court handed down the death penalty to eight militants of Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami Bangladesh (Huji-B), including Mufti Shafiqur and its top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, in the case.

Six other militants of the banned outfit were sentenced to life in prison for their involvement in the blasts.