ABC news understands that that there was a brutal and pre-meditated attack in Dhaka’s Mouchak area yesterday. The victim is one Mr Md Ali Ahsraf , brother of notable national journalist, writer, columnist Ms Sharmin Jannat Bhutto and blogger Shafi Nawaz.
Mr Ashraf was nearly beaten to death by a group of hooligans largely suspected to be members of Jamaat-Shibir. He sustained grievous injuries all over his body and has consequently filed for a general diary at the Ramna Police station, on the 23/07/2016. We were able to get in touch with Mr Ashraf’s family, including his Ms Sharmin Jannat Bhutto and Shafi Nawaz who are currently residing in the UK. These are our findings.
According to the general diary filed by Mr Ashraf, he had received several threatening phone calls over the course of a few months, prior to the attack yesterday evening on the 22nd of July 2016. Unknown individuals would call Mr Ashraf and warn him to “control” his sisters, journalist Ms Sharmin Jannat Bhutto and blogger Shafi Nawaz. They claim that his sisters are deliberately spreading false rumours and propaganda across mass media outlets, belittling their “beloved leaders” Golam Azam, Delowar Hossain Saidi, Motiur Rahman Nizami and others. They would threaten Mr Ashraf to make his sisters stop writing about their superiors.
Eventually on the evening of 22nd July 2016, a gang of 7/8 individuals on motorcycles reportedly to be in their late 20s, surrounded Mr Ashraf who was on his way home on a rickshaw. Upon surrounding him, the men quickly pulled out knives and revolvers and whilst brandishing the weapons at Mr Ashraf, they said that they’d warned him quite a few times to no avail. They continued that since the warnings didn’t work perhaps “the sight of his dead body on the streets” will stop his sisters once and for all. With that they converged upon Mr Ashraf at once, pounding every inch of his body they could find. At one point one of the perpetrators took a swipe at his right eye with the butt of his revolver. The resulting impact caused a large incision over Mr Ashraf right eyebrow from which he began to bleed incessantly.
At one point the resulting commotion from the attack, and the screams of Mr Topu’s rickshaw-puller attracted the nearby locals. That prompted his assailants to fire a few rounds from their revolvers into empty space, shouting “Naraye Takbir, Allahu Akbar” before scurrying back to their motorcycles and fleeing the scene. The locals who’d gathered and Mr Topu’s rickshaw puller later carried him to the hospital for primary treatments.
According to the general diary, Mr Ashraf claims that these men are quite possibly minions of Jamat-Shibir, given the constant references to notorious Jamaat leaders like Delowar Saidi and Motiur Nizami. He also claimed that they had a distinctively trimmed beard and the slogan “Naraye Takbir, Allahu Akbar” is also a notable insignia of religious extremist groups. He is currently living away room his family out of fear of another attack. His family have also changed addresses since the incident, out of the same concerns.
We got in touch with the officer-in-charge leading the investigations Mr Mosharraf on Mr Ashraf’s attack. Mr Mosharraf declined to comment on the situation, stating that they investigations are still ongoing and they have nothing at this point.
The attack on Mr Ashraf, joins an ever growing list of religiously motivated attacks, or where a religious extremist group was involved. But what is disturbing is the way the culprits are now changing their tactics and singling out family members in a bid to flush out their eventual targets. This latest incident was of curse preceded by the terrorist attack on “Holey Artisan Baker” on the 2nd of July, in Gulshan Dhaka.
