Author: TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: April 13, 2009
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata-/Man-behind-Hasina-bid-held-in-Baguiati/articleshow/4393235.cms
A dreaded Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami Bangladesh
activist, wanted for at least two failed attempts on the life of Bangladesh
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and several other terror attacks in the country,
was nabbed by CID officers from a hideout in Baguiati on Sunday.
Police said he had undergone a cosmetic surgery
here to evade detection.
Mufti Ibrahim, alias Jalauddin, is the cousin
of HuJI-B commander Mufti Abdul Hannan, now in a Bangladesh jail, police said.
He hails from Kotalipara in Gopalgunge and joined HuJI-B after Hannan returned
from Afghanistan in 1993 where he fought for Taliban as a mujahid.
Ibrahim is wanted for planting 76 kg explosives
near the venue of a Hasina meeting at the Kotalipara helipad in July 2000.
The explosives were detected just minutes before the rally. Four years later,
he is suspected to have played a role in a grenade attack on an Awami League
rally on Bangabandhu Avenue. Mufti Hannan was arrested for masterminding the
attack.
Soon after, Ibrahim fled, took shelter in
North 24-Parganas and got in touch with other Bangladeshi gangsters hiding
in the state. With the help of these criminals and an influential person believed
to be a former Bangladeshi politician now hiding in Kolkata he rented a flat
in Baguiati's Aswininagar area. Late on Sunday, officers of CIDs special operation
group raided his house.
Ibrahim's local accomplices had put him in
touch with a cosmetic surgeon in central Kolkata a few years ago and he is
believed to have altered his looks.
"A few other dreaded Bangla dons, including
Mohammed Iqbal and Sufi Khan, also changed their looks with cosmetic surgery
at the same clinic. We are trying to find the exact changes to Ibrahim's appearance,"
said a CID officer. "We are grilling him for further details," added
S N Gupta, DIG CID Operations.
