2 militants' escape: 10 Ansar al-Islam men placed on fresh remand

A Dhaka court today placed 10 members of banned militant outfit Ansar al-Islam on a fresh five-day remand in a case over the escape of two militants on death row from the court premises on November 20.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Shafiuddin passed the order after Abul Kalam Azad, inspector of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and also the investigation officer of the case, produced them before the court, seeking a fresh 10-day remand.

Additional police personnel were deployed on the court premises to ward off any untoward incident.

The IO told the court that all the 10 accused were interrogated on remand and they gave important information about the escape of the two death-row convicts from the court premises. But they avoided answering some questions about the whereabouts of the two. They need to be remanded again for more information.

Two Ansar al-Islam men, who were sentenced to death for killing publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, escaped from the premises of Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court on November 20.

The two are Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Samir alias Imran, and Abu Siddiq Sohel.

Later, a case was filed with the Kotwali Police Station over the incident.

Police have so far arrested 15 people in connection with the case.