Awami League Leader’s Son Maybe Dhaka Attacker: Reports

The senior leader’s son attended a prestigious school in Dhaka and had been missing since December 2015.

The 11-hour siege at the Dhaka cafe left 20 people dead. (Photo: AP)

The son of a senior leader of Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League could be one of the seven attackers who hacked 20 hostages to death at a prominent restaurant in the diplomatic enclave in Dhaka.

Rohan Ibne Imtiaz, the son of SM Imtiaz Khan Babul–a leader of the party’s Dhaka City chapter and Deputy Secretary General of Bangladesh Olympic Association’s, has been identified as one of the attackers by another Awami League leader, BD News reported.

Babul lodged a police complaint on 4 January, 2016 stating that his son had been missing.

“We have identified him (Rohan) as Imtiaz Babul’s son, after going through the pictures that came up in the media and on Facebook,” Mukul Chowdhury, a vice-president of the recently-defunct Awami League’s Dhaka City unit committee.

Rohan completed his A-levels from Scholastica school which is known to be attended by children of well-to-do families in Dhaka. His mother is a teacher at the school.

Former classmates have uploaded photos on social media of Rohan with his parents and the photo-monitoring group SITE Intelligence published on Twitter, reportedly released by ISIS, as one of the Dhaka cafe attackers.

The army said six attackers had been killed in the countertsrike and that 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were found slaughtered inside the restaurant.

Police later released the pictures of five bodies, who they said were the hostage-takers who had been killed in the army assault. But Rohan was not among them, said his relatives. His name also did not come up along with the pictures posted by SITE or police.

SITE identified the five attackers as Abu Omar, Abu Salam, Abu Rahim, Abu Muslim, and Abu Muharib al-Bengali.

According to the police complaint filed by Rohan’s father, the 20-year-old was a business student at BRAC University in Bangladesh.

Babul apparently went to India on 25 December 2015 to get his wife treated and on 30 December, he was informed that Rohan had not come back home.

Also Read: Dhaka: Attackers Made No Demands, ISIS Not Involved Says Home Min