2 'militants' arrested for plotting to kill filmmaker Khijir Hayat

Police claims to have arrested two alleged members of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team on charge of plotting to kill filmmaker Khijir Hayat Khan.

Emdadul Islam alias Mehedi Hasan, 30, and Abu Bakar alias Fahim Abdullah, 30, were arrested around 3:45pm on Monday, said Mohibul Islam Khan, deputy commissioner of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

The duo followed Khijir to his village home in Cumilla recently, to execute their plan, he said.

CTTC officials said the “militants” created a group on Telegram [a messaging app] and communicated with each other to plan the murder as they believed the film “Mr. Bangladesh” -- written jointly by Khijir Hayat Khan and Hasnat Piash, and starring Khijir -- goes against their ideology and “jihad” in Islam.

Md Emdadul Islam and Abu Bakar are arrested from Dhaka's Banani area early on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. Photo: STAR

The film, directed by Abu Akhter Ul Iman, hit movie theatres nationwide on November 16.

Khijir told The Daily Star, “Police cautioned me one and a half months back about possible attack by militants. Besides, I received a threat through Facebook messenger three days before the movie was released.”

“The movie is certainly not against Islam….Such threats will not deter me from doing my job,” he said.