Japanese-B’deshi Hindu convert was behind Dhaka attack
NEWDELHI: A Japanese-Bangladeshi Hindu convert is most likely to be the mastermind behind the terror attack claimed by Islamic State on a Dhaka bakery last July that left 24 people dead, a report has said.
A report by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper also identified Sajit Deb nat hak a M oh am mad Sai full ah Oz a ki, a former associate professor of Ritsumeikan University, as the elusive ‘ameer’ of IS in Bangladesh.
Oz a ki, who the report said had appeared in an interview in Islamic State’ s Dabiq magazine in April 2016 under the nom de guerre Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, is responsible for a series of jihadi attacks in Bangladesh including the massacre at the Holey Artisan Bakery.
He took his current name around May 2015, most likely because his old identity was revealed to Bangladeshi security agencies by captured IS members Gazi Sohan and Aminul Islam Baig, the report said.
He was appointed the group’s a me erin Bangladesh in June 2015 after his return to Japan from a short trip to Turkey.
The Bangladeshi affiliate of IS, D aw latul Islam Ben gal, came into existence in July 2015 with patron age and guidance of Oz a ki, after a merger between a renegade faction of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh and Jund at-Tawhid wal-Khilafah.
Canadian-Bangladeshi jihadi Tam im Ahmed Chowdhury w as appointed the head of military and covert operations while Sarwar J ah an was chosen as Oz a ki’ s representative on the ground.
Initially, the group’s activities were mostly focused on recruiting Bangladeshi jihadis for the Syrian war. Ozaki was the kingpin of a transnational group that funded and facilitated IS recruitment operations in Bangladesh since mid-2014, the report said.
Ozaki’s whereabouts remain unknown. There are reports that he took his family to Syria after entering Turkey via Bulgaria in 2015.But some reports place him in Indonesia and Malaysia.