'Missing' youth turns suspect

Since February 3, police have been looking for a 24-year-old youth who left home on that day and didn't come back.

His father filed a general diary with Dhanmondi Police Station the day he went missing, mentioning that his son left home for having lunch with his friends.

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The July 1 Holey Artisan terror attack brought the missing youth, Tawsif Hossain, to police attention as his disappearance is said to be linked with that of Nibras Islam, one of the five attackers killed in the commando operation during the Gulshan café siege.

With law enforcers making efforts to track Tawsif down, startling information about him is now coming out.

Police say Tawsif is a close friend of Nibras. Both were students of Monash University in Malaysia and went missing on the same day -- February 3.

Nibras was one of the accused in the case filed with Shahbagh Police Station under the Anti-terrorism Act on February 9 for planning subversive activities. And the name of one Tawsif was mentioned in the first information report.

"We think this Tawsif is indeed the missing Tawsif as they [Nibras and Tawsif] were close friends and went missing on the same day," Noor-a-Azam Miah, officer-in-charge of Dhanmondi Police Station, told The Daily Star yesterday.

This newspaper couldn't reach any of Tawsif's family members for comments.

These correspondents went to Tawsif's house on Road-15 in Dhanmondi area around 9:00pm yesterday but caretaker of the building Md Shahid said Tawsif's parents went out of their apartment around 11:00am and were yet to return.

When the correspondents showed him Tawsif's photo provided by police, he immediately identified the missing youth. “I have heard he has been missing for a few months,” said Shahid.

He also said Tawsif used to visit Bangladesh occasionally and spend most of his time at home. “His friends hardly visited him.”

Referring to the GD filed by Tawsif's father Ajmal Hossain, the OC said he along with Nibras returned to Bangladesh from Malaysia on November 3 last year.

After his return, Nibras left home and lived in Jhenidah for around four months. He left the place only a couple of days before the bloody Gulshan siege. It all came to light after the July 1 incident.

Tawsif studied at an English-medium school in the capital and later got admitted to the Malaysian university, the OC said.

His father Ajmal, a physician by profession, spent 10 years in Saudi Arabia before returning home a few years ago, he said.

Around noon on February 3, Tawsif left home with a bag telling his mother that he was going out to have lunch with friends, according to Noor-a-Azam.

Quoting his family, Inspector Helal Uddin of the same police station said, “While leaving, Tawsif mentioned Nibras' name as one of his friends with whom he would have lunch.”

As Tawsif, the youngest among three siblings, didn't return home at night, his family called Nibras' grandfather and learnt that he also didn't return home, said the OC, adding that they later came to know that Nibras also went missing on February 3.

Tawsif's family members then found that his passport was missing, the OC said.

Ajmal, who is from Ramchandrapur village in Rajshahi, filed the GD with Dhanmondi Police Station on that night.

The police official said they also informed all police stations across the country about Tawsif.

When Nibras' name cropped up following the Gulshan attack, police visited Tawsif's house to get more information about him.

“We now suspect that he may have been involved in militancy,” added the OC.

CASE AGAINST NIBRAS, TAWSIF

On February 9, Abul Bashar, sub-inspector of the Detective Branch (South) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, filed a case against 12 people with Shahbagh Police Station under the Anti-Terrorism Act for conspiring to commit subversive activities.

On that day, police conducted a drive in Shahbagh area on information that some suspected militants were plotting to carry out subversive activities there, according to the case document.

Police arrested three alleged militants from the spot and learnt from them that their nine accomplices managed to escape, it reads.

In the case document, the names of Nibras and Tawsif were mentioned as fugitives but their addresses were not mentioned.

SM Raisul Islam, investigation officer of the case, told this newspaper yesterday that through media reports, he came to know about the links between Nibras and Tawsif, and the filling of the GD by his father.

“I have contacted Dhanmondi Police and hope to get a copy of the GD soon. Once I receive the copy, it will be possible to tell whether the accused Tawsif is indeed the missing youth by the same name,” he said.

During interrogation, the three arrestees didn't give addresses of their nine accomplices, said Raisul, adding that the detainees were released on bail from the High Court.

The three are Raiyan Minhaj alias Raiyu alis Armin, 24, Ahmed Shammur Raihan alias Chiller, 23, and Touhid Bin Ahmed alias Riaz alias Kachchi, 24.

Raiyan and Touhid were granted a six-month ad-interim bail each on March 29 and April 10, while Shammur got a three-month bail on April 19, said sources at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka which is dealing with the case.