Dhaka, August 27 (The Daily Star): The Bangladesh police have shot dead Tamim Chaudhury, a Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi origin, who had masterminded the massacre of 20 people including several foreigners at a posh restaurant in the up market Gulshan area of Dhaka on July 1.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal claimed on Saturday that sacked army major Syed Ziaul Haq will also meet the same fate.
“There is no room for militancy in Bangladesh. We will eliminate them from the country with the cooperation of people,” the Home Minister said while addressing an anti-militancy rally at Bagmara Upazila in Rajshahi on Saturday.
Kamal said that either the militants will have to surrender before the law enforcers or to leave the country
Militancy emerged in Bagmara during BNP-Jamaat rule and the then government had nurtured militancy to serve its political interest. Even now the BNP-Jamaat group is linked with those who are carrying out militant activities across the country, he alleged.
The relations of Tamim Chowdhury have refused to receive his body.
“I hated to introduce him as my nephew. We don’t want to receive his body,” Tamim’s uncle Nurul Islam Chowdhury said.
Nurul Islam, a local coal businessman, said he has no contact with Tamim’s family members who live in Canada.
Relatives and villagers said Tamim is a son of Shafiqul Islam Chowdhury alias Soa Maih of Barogram village in Beanibazar Upazila of Sylhet.
They said Soa Maih left his village after the country’s Liberation War for Chittagong to avoid arrest in a criminal case. He used to work at Chittagong Shipyard.
Tamim had spent his childhood in Chittagong and studied there up to class III. Later, he along with his family migrated to Canada and was raised there.
His cousin Fahim Chowdhury said Tamim came home for a few days in 1995 after they migrated to Canada
“He was 14-15 years old at that time. He was very reserved. We didn’t have any contact with him or his family after he returned to Canada.”
He said Tamim’s family members came to Bangladesh in 2001 for three months but did not visit their village home as they stayed in Sylhet town in a rented house.
The relatives also said no one of Tamim’s family from Canada contacted them as of 6:00pm today to enquire about Tamim. They said they have heard that Tamim was a father of three children.
Barogram villagers said they had come to know about Tamim after his name surfaced in the Gulshan case.
“Our village was defamed because of his militant link. Some people now taunt us calling us people of militant village. We’re ashamed of it,” said Bijoy Das, an inhabitant of the village.
