The Bangladesh police who killed the chief (emir) of Islamic State in the country during a raid last week on the outskirts of Dhaka are facing trouble in disposing off the militant's body. Family members of Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury who was heading the IS-Jamatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh module responsible for a series of bloody attacks, have refused to claim his corpse. Authorities are now attempting to track down Tamim's biological parents residing in Canada, get them to take a dna test and hand them the body.
Following the raid on Saturday morning, where Tamim and his two associates—identified as Tausif Hassan and Fazle Rabbi — were killed, police contacted his family in Sylhet. An uncle of his recognised the body as that of his nephew, but was not keen to talk more about him or his parents, least of all to take the body for the final rites, out of the disgrace that Tamim's act had brought upon the family.
Only last month, Bangladesh was witness to back-to-back violent terror attacks claimed by the IS, in the holy month of Ramzan. The siege at the Holey café targeting mostly foreign nationals and the blast at Sholakia Eidgah on the congregation gathered for Eid prayers, were the so-called attacks made on `kuffar' (disbelievers) and mushkireens (apostates) who have deviated from Islam. In his first and only recorded interview with IS magazine Dabiq, Tamim alias Abu Ibrahim al Hanif vowed to cleanse Bengal of such people, to bring back the Muslims who had deviated from the 'true understanding of the Salaf' into the fold of Shariah and to do away with the secular democratic government to impose Islamic rule in Bangladesh instead.
The bloodshed in the holy month shocked the Muslim majority nation with its senseless violence carried by its own people in the name of Islam. The emotional outrage right from the top political leadership to the people on the street, saw one and all come together to declare these violent acts in the name of jihad as terrorism.
"There is a sense of humiliation and anger that one of their own family members was a terrorist and responsible for all this killing. They came for identification but didn't want to take the body,'' said a senior official from Bangladesh police, who was involved in the raid, about Tamim's relatives. The bodies of the three militants are currently preserved in the morgue freezer at the Dhaka Medical College.
Family members of Hassan and Rabbi, too, have identified their bodies, but have not come forward to take them for burial. Hassan was a student at Monash University, Malaysia the same institute that Holey café attackers Nibras Islam and Rohan Imtiaz attended as well. Rabbi, an honors student from Jessore, was a son of a school principal. "These boys, like the other café attackers come from well-to-do families and went missing this year in January-February,'' said Bangladesh police Assistant Inspector General (Confidential) Md Moniruzzaman, noting the pattern in Tamim's recruitment strategy to form the new IS-JMB module.
Authorities are now waiting to establish contact through Interpol with Tamim's family residing in Windsor, Canada for a dna match. Tamim was born in Sylhet but immigrated to Canada with his parents. He is believed to be married and to have three children. Authorities have so far relied on intelligence and other documented identification like his passport, visa and CCTV grabs at Dubai airport in 2013 along with verification by the close family relatives.
In Borogram Sadimapur village under Dubag union of Sylhet's Beanibazar upazila, where Tamim was born, the news of his death resulted in spontaneous celebrations. "The local people are celebrating, distributing sweets and are happy that the man responsible for causing terror and deaths of so many people is dead,'' said the senior police officer.
