Dhaka Attack Gunmen Were Guitar-Playing, Football-Loving Young Men

Here’s a brief profile of the young men who attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka.

While the Bangladesh government denies that the assailants in the horrific Dhaka terror attack were from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), questions have been raised about the indoctrination of the young men who carried out the attack.

It has emerged that the three terrorists identified from the ISIS released photos went to elite, affluent schools in Dhaka. One of them was the son of an Awami League leader.

The men ranged in age from 18 to 22. They played football and the guitar, pursued higher education and held social media accounts.

On the other hand, they followed extremists and consumed propaganda online through various accounts maintained by ISIS recruiters and radicals. The report suggests that Rohan Imtiaz and Nibras Islam regularly followed three extremely controversial propagandists, Zakir Naik, Anjem Choudhary, and Mehdi Biswas.

Rohan Imtiaz, 20

20-year-old Rohan Imtiaz had been missing since December 2015. Imtiaz went on a trip with friends and never returned thereafter, reports The Times of India.

At the time, his parents were in India for medical treatment. They had been in touch with the police since his disappearance, made even more anxious by the propaganda material they had found on his computer.

Imtiaz’s father is a leader of the Awami League in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s ruling party, while his mother is a math teacher at the school he attended, Scholastica.

Meer Saameh Mubasher, 18

The youngest of the lot, 18-year-old Mubasher, had been missing since February, when he left home for a coaching centre. According to the TOI report, police claims a group of about five other youths went missing the same day as Mubasher.

Mubasher used to play the guitar and sketch. However, he stopped indulging in these activities, claiming “music is not good”. His mother is a college teacher while his father is a high-ranking official with a telco.

Mubasher’s father claimed he bought his son an English translation of the Quran to prevent him from getting a distorted view of the religion.

Khairul Islam Payel, 20

Payel was the eldest born of a daily labourer in a Bangladeshi village. With already a criminal record at the age of 20, Payel is assumed to have led the group of gunmen in the Dhaka attack.

He went to study in Dhaka, only to leave in December and return home. After a couple of months, he went missing again.

Nibras Islam, 22

Islam was a student at the Monash University in Malaysia. He had returned in December, only to go missing again in February. Those who knew Islam described him as “quiet, not very religious”, according to the TOI report. He used to play football in school.

However, once he moved to Monash, he lost touch with friends. According to accounts of released hostages, Islam led the group of attackers in Dhaka.

Also Read: Dhaka Attack: Gunmen Include Awami Leader’s Son, Affluent Students