Holey Artisan Attack: Last accused arrested in C'nawabganj

The Rapid Action Battalion yesterday claimed to have arrested a charge-sheeted accused in the Holey Artisan attack case in Chapainawabganj's Nachole upazila.

Shariful Islam alias Khaled, 27, was picked up from Haripur area around 3:00pm. With him, all the eight charge-sheeted accused in the case have been arrested, said Rab.

Khaled was being brought to Dhaka for interrogation, Mufti Mahmud Khan, director (legal and media) of Rab, told The Daily Star.

The elite force would hold a press briefing in this regard today, he added.

Earlier on January 20, the Rab arrested another fugitive militant Mamunur Rashid alias Ripon in Gazipur.

Like Ripon, Khaled also took part in a meeting of top JMB leaders in Gaibandha in February 2016 when the attack was planned, law enforcers dealing with militancy said.

He along with Ripon went to India in April 2016, just three months before the café attack that left 20 hostages and two police officials killed on July 1, 2016. He provided money to the JMB leaders before the attack, officials said.

It could not be known immediately when Khaled returned to Bangladesh from India.

The arrestee, who studied English at Rajshahi University, coordinated the April 23, 2016 attack in which Prof Rezaul Karim was hacked to death.

After the café attack, his family, like others, filed a general diary with the local police station seeking his whereabouts. He remained missing for long from his village in Rajshahi's Bagmara upazila.

Ripon and Khaled were on the run when police pressed charges against eight JMB militants in the sensational case on July 23 last year.

Six others arrested earlier are Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, recruiter of the café attackers, Rashed alias Rash, one of the planners, Sohel Mahfuz, grenade supplier, arms suppliers Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan and Rakibul Islam, a so-called religious trainer, and Hadisur Rahman Sagar.

Besides, 13 others, including café attack mastermind Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury and top JMB leader Sarwar Jahan Manik, involved in the attack were killed in different anti-militancy drives. Their names were not mentioned in the charge sheet as they were dead.

Our Chapainawabganj correspondent contributed to this report.