Top “Neo JMB” leader Nurul Islam Marzan, who allegedly coordinated the Gulshan café attack, was killed in a “gunfight” with police in the capital early yesterday. 

It also left another leader of the militant group dead. He is Saddam Hossain alias Rahul, who led “Neo JMB” activities in northern region.

Saddam was wanted in at least 10 murder cases, including that for the killing of Japanese national Kunio Hoshi in Rangpur and Jogeshwar Das Adhikari in Panchagarh.

“Marzan was next in the rank to top Neo JMB coordinator Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury. He used to remain close to Tamim,” DMP's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Chief Monirul Islam told The Daily Star yesterday.

Bangladeshi-Canadian Tamim was killed in a police raid in Narayanganj on August 27 last year.

Marzan along with more than a dozen other militant leaders grabbed the attention of law enforcers after the café attack, which left 22 people, mostly foreigners, dead on July 1 last year.

“Many of them [the militants] have already been killed. We are still looking for three to four other top leaders of the group,” Monirul added.

Earlier on December 25 last year, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said sacked army major Syed Ziaul Haque and Marzan were under surveillance and would be arrested anytime soon.

Zia is the military wing chief of terror outfit Ansar al Islam, which is involved in targeted killing of freethinkers, writers, bloggers and LGBT activists.

About Marzan, officials had earlier said the Gulshan café attackers were sending him pictures and situation reports from inside the restaurant during the siege on July 1.

He later sent those pictures and reports to Tamim.

Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, posted five pictures of the attackers on July 2 from her twitter account, saying that the images were released by Islamic State.

“Neo JMB”, as called by law enforcers, is an offshoot of the banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and it follows the ideologies and strategy of IS.

Police released Marzan's photo on August 12 last year.

SADDAM WAS PICKED UP 9 MONTHS AGO?

Mizanur Rahman, elder brother of Saddam, told The Daily Star that they identified him from some photographs of the body they got from some journalists who came to their house yesterday afternoon.

On April 14 last year, some uniformed and plainclothes policemen picked up Saddam from his in-laws' house in Sundarganj upazila of Gaibandha, Mizanur claimed. 

“His wife Farzana and in-laws informed us about the incident,” he said, adding they went to Sundarganj Police Station but police denied picking him up.

Saddam's in-laws tried to file a general diary with the police station but officials there refused to record it, he also said.

“As we were in panic, we tried to file a general dairy with Rajarhat Police Station [in Kurigram] through a mediator but failed.”

The family members had almost no communications with Saddam since he married Farzana in December 2014 without their consent. He was then a first-year history student at a college in Lalmonirhat.

Saddam used to live with his in-laws in Gaibandha and look after a poultry farm there. After his marriage, he visited his family once or twice -- the last was possibly in February 2015.

Saddam, who passed Dakhil and Alim [equivalent to SSC and HSC] from a madrasa in Rajarhat, didn't have beard before he was picked up. But, in the photo, he has beard, Mizanur said.

He added that they would bury the body if the government allows.

THE 'SHOOTOUT'

Mohibul Islam Khan, deputy commissioner of CTTC unit, said law enforcers set up a checkpoint Thursday night in front of Rayerbazar Martyred Intellectuals Memorial on Beribadh in Mohammadpur following information that Marzan would pass through the area.

“As two persons on a motorbike were going through the area around 3:00am yesterday, policemen on duty at the checkpoint challenged them. A gunfight ensued as the two while trying to escape hurled two to three grenades targeting our officials.”

During the “gunfight”, the two youths fell from the bike being hit with bullets. They were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), where doctors declared them dead, Mohibul said.

At the DMCH, the CTTC officials became confirmed about the identities of the two from photographs.

Police recovered a pistol, three bullets and a knife from the spot.

Asked where Marzan had been hiding since police launched a hunt for him, Mohibul said they are investigating it.

The bodies have been kept at Dhaka Medical College morgue for autopsy, said Bachchu Mia, sub-inspector at the DMCH Police Outpost.

Visiting the spot yesterday morning, this correspondent saw blood on the ground.

Shahida Begum, a middle-aged woman who runs a tea stall in front of the memorial, said around midnight she heard from her house a couple of explosions. The house is just beside the shop. 

Nargis Begum, who lives in a nearby slum, said that from her home, she had heard several gunshots.

Meanwhile, the home minister told reporters at his residence that

Saddam was involved in all the targeted killings in North Bengal and he coordinated the militants in the region while Marzan was an upper-tier leader.

“We were looking for Marzan and Saddam,” he said.

Marzan was the most wanted militant after other top militants got killed or arrested, the minister added.

“We believe that they [militants] will now become largely inactive as Marzan and Saddam have died,” he said.

Marzan's father Nizam Uddin said they would not apply for getting the body for burial but would receive it if the authorities hand it over to them.

“My son got involved in militant activities and now he got his punishment,” he told our Pabna correspondent.

“I have nine more children. I have no eagerness for his body for the sake of security of other family members,” he added.

Family members and villagers demanded punishment of those responsible for the spread of militancy in the country.

“Nobody supports Marzan's militant activities. His death in shootout is not a surprise. The masterminds should also be hunted down,” said Emdadul Islam, an elderly neighbour of the family.