Father, friend of 'suicide bomber' Saiful held

Khulna police yesterday arrested the suspected suicide bomber Saiful's father and a childhood friend, who gave him shelter in a mess in the capital's Mirpur for a few days after he came to Dhaka from Khulna.

But the duo was picked up by police on Tuesday.

Police, however, couldn't name the case in which Saiful's father Abul Khair and friend Abdullah Bin Mosaddek Sami were arrested.

The arrests came hours after Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia at a press briefing said that Saiful had more than one associate.

Counterterrorism officers of Dhaka Metropolitan Police are trying to arrest them and those who sent him to carry out the attack, the DMP commissioner said.

Saiful, a “Neo JMB” militant suspect, was killed during a raid in the capital's Hotel Olio International on Tuesday. Counterterrorism officials claimed he had plans to carry out an attack on the crowd paying homage to Bangabandhu on National Mourning Day at Dhanmondi 32.

Abdur Rouf, an uncle of Saiful, yesterday claimed that Saiful went to Dhaka as his childhood friends Shariful Islam, 22 and Sami, 23, promised that they would help him get a job there, reports our Khulna correspondent.

He added that Sami worked in a private firm and Shariful studied law at a private university in Dhaka.

According to Rouf, the two along with another young man Ishan, also from Khulna, lived in a mess in Dhaka where Saiful stayed for a few days after he came to Dhaka on August 7 from Khulna's Dumuria upazila.

He also said that Saiful decided to leave for Dhaka after he had a disagreement with his father on August 4.

Khulna Superintendent of Police Nizamul Haq Mollah said Sami told them that Saiful went to his mess saying that someone was about to send him to Mauritius.

Sami told police that he knew nothing more, the SP told The Daily Star.

Sami also admitted that he came back to his village a few days after Saiful went to Dhaka as he contracted a fever.

Sami's father Abu Obayed Mosaddekh alias Diki is a freedom fighter and a ruling party activist. He said his son has been living in Dhaka for the last three years. He admitted that Sami and Saiful were good friends.

Meanwhile, the doctor, who conducted the autopsy on Saiful, said he died in a bomb explosion.

Different parts of his body were severely burnt, Sohel Mahmud, head of forensic medicine department of Dhaka Medical College, told The Daily Star.

He added that they collected blood and urine samples to test whether he was on drugs.