Hunt for escaped extremist linked to IS

Philippines probe of cyber theft nearly complete

DHAKA, July 27, (Agencies): Bangladesh on Wednesday launched a hunt for the survivor of a police raid on an extremist hideout which killed nine suspected Islamists who claimed to belong to the Islamic State group.

Investigators hope the escaped extremist and another man who was arrested during a major gunfight in Dhaka Tuesday will shed light on the group’s proclaimed ties with the IS.

“We’ve alerted all checkpoints in the capital in a bid to arrest him (the escapee),” deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Masud Ahmed, told AFP.

Officers believe the nine slain extremists were part of the same group that killed 22 people during an attack on an upscale Dhaka cafe on July 1 — an attack claimed by IS.

Police said they recovered IS’s black flag and robes from the Dhaka hideout, but maintained the extremists are actually members of the domestic Islamist group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

“We’re conducting an investigation. Hasan has claimed that they were IS members,” a senior security official told AFP, referring to a 25-yearold arrested in the raid who is being treated in hospital.

“We suspect he is one of the leading members of the group.”

Investigators are also trying to retrieve information from a laptop and several mobile phones recovered in the raid.

IS has claimed responsibility for dozens of murders of religious minority members and foreigners in Bangladesh in recent months.

Bangladesh authorities, however, have steadfastly maintained that the IS has no presence in the world’s third-largest Muslim majority nation. They blame homegrown groups such as JMB.

Following the Dhaka cafe attack, IS released photos of five gunmen posing with the group’s flag. They also published gruesome images of the carnage before commandos ended the siege.

The Bangladesh central bank said on Tuesday its Philippine counterpart had nearly completed an investigation into how $81 million of its money wound up in a Manila bank, and that it hoped for the swift return of the stolen funds.

Governor Fazle Kabir told reporters he hoped the Philippine authorities would fix responsibility on the Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp for disbursing the stolen funds that landed in accounts there.

Hackers broke into Bangladesh Bank’s computer systems in February and transferred $81 million from its deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York into four RCBC accounts in a Manila branch. The accounts in the names of individuals had been opened with a $500 deposit and remained inactive for a year.

Kabir said his Philippine counterpart assured him last week that the Manila end of the investigation into the cyber heist, the biggest in banking history, was nearly completed.

“We are hopeful that the findings of the investigation will be in our favour and that the anti-money laundering council of Philippines will hold RCBC as liable,” Kabir said at a news conference to announce a new monetary policy.

Bangladesh would be able to get all its money back if the Philippine bank was held responsible for the suspicious accounts into which the money was transferred before being sent to casinos and gambling agents, he added.

In May, RCBC announced its president, Lorenzo Tan, had resigned but cleared him of any responsibility in the money laundering scandal.

A Bangladesh Bank delegation will soon visit the Philippines to try and hasten efforts to recover the funds, officials in Dhaka, the capital, said.

Bangladesh police said Tuesday they had arrested two more textile workers over the death of a nine-yearold boy who was tortured, apparently as punishment for breaking factory rules.

Sagar Barman’s family say workers at Zubaida Textile Mills forced the hose from an air compressor into his rectum and turned it on, causing internal injuries that later killed him.

Local police chief Ismail Hossain said it appeared the boy — who by law should not have been employed — was being punished for using the device to remove the bits of cotton that stuck to workers at the mill, a banned practice.

“It seems they did it as a kind of punishment to the child,” Hossain told AFP. “They did not realise that it would end so tragically.”

One worker was arrested on Monday and on Tuesday police arrested two more, including a line supervisor suspected of witnessing the incident.

“In all, three people have now been arrested over the murder and will be remanded for questioning,” police inspector Jasim Uddin, who is investigating the case, told AFP.

Zubaida is one of Bangladesh’s largest mills and sells yarn to clothing makers who export their products to top Western brands and retailers.

Police said they were looking for the owner of the factory and its senior managers, who fled after the boy’s death and who face charges of employing hundreds of child labourers.

Officers who raided the factory on Monday rescued 27 child workers, many of them aged under 14, who were paid far less than the minimum wage.

Millions of children are employed to do hazardous factory work in impoverished Bangladesh, even though owners are barred by law from hiring workers under the age of 18.

UNICEF estimates that 4.9 million children aged from five to 14 are working in numerous industries in Bangladesh. But textile mill owners tend to avoid child labour, fearing Western sanctions.

A 13-year-old boy was killed in the same way last August in the southwestern city of Khulna, sparking furious protests. Two men were sentenced to death over that case.

Nationwide demonstrations were also held in July last year over the lynching of a 13-year-old boy who was tied to a pole and beaten to death after he was accused of stealing a bicycle.

Six men were sentenced to death for that killing in the city of Sylhet, which was captured on video and uploaded onto social media. The boy was heard pleading for his life.