Gulshan Cafe attack chargesheet to be finalised: Official

The charge-sheet in last year's deadly terror attack at the Gulshan Cafe will be finalised after completing the interrogation of a close aide of a key plotter of the attack, a police officer said on Saturday.

Aslam Hossain Rashed, who belongs to the banned Neo-JMB group and carried arms and grenades from Chapainawabganj district to Dhaka, was arrested on Friday. He was the key plotter of the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in the posh Gulshan area, that left 22 persons, mostly foreigners, dead on July 1 last year.

"The investigation into the case reaches the final stage with the arrest of the key Neo JMB militant," The Daily Star quoted Dhaka Police's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit chief Monirul Islam as saying.

"We will finalise the charge sheet after getting information from Rashed if he is placed on remand," he added.

Twenty-year-old Rashed alias 'Rash' -- allegedly a close aide to chief coordinator of Neo-JMB and the attack's mastermind Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury -- oversaw the arms training of Gulshan attackers, according to the officials.

Rashed joined Neo-JMB, an offshoot of banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), at the end of 2015 and later became the coordinator of its training programmes.

"After Rashed's arrest, we are now trying to arrest another Neo JMB leader, Hasidur Rahman Sagor alias Joypurhat Sagor, who played vital role in the attack," the CTTC chief said.

The police have so far hunted down and killed 40 militants linked with the cafe attack, including Chowdhury, who was killed in a police raid on August 27 last year.

--IANS

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