[In a news conference here Wednesday, counterterrorism chief Monirul Islam said that Ullah’s attempted attack was inspired by the writings and online sermons of a Bangladeshi cleric named Jasimuddin Rahmani, the spiritual leader of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a banned Bangladeshi terrorist organization. Rahmani is serving a five-year prison term after his conviction on charges of inciting the murder of a Bangladeshi blogger.]
By
Vidhi Doshi
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A man parks a motorcycle
inside a building where a 27-year-old Bangladeshi man,
Akayed Ullah used to live
in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Counterterrorism officers
questioned his wife and
other relatives after he was accused of carrying
out a bomb attack in New
York City's subway system. (A.M. Ahad/AP)
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DHAKA,
Bangladesh — Hours before
Akayed Ullah is alleged to have stepped into a busy Manhattan subway passage, a
homemade pipe bomb strapped to his body with Velcro, his wife called him from
here to wake him up. The telephone conversation Monday was brief and ordinary —
Jannatul Ferdous did not detect any signs that her husband was upset or angry,
nor did he say anything memorable. She told him to go to work and hung up.
Soon, his image would be shown on television
screens around the world. His bomb had detonated, and he was severely injured.
American authorities accused him of plotting a terrorist attack. On Wednesday,
he had his first brief court appearance, by way of a video link between a
federal courthouse and the hospital where he is recovering.
“I always thought he was a good man,” Ferdous
said Wednesday, speaking through the crack of the front door of her home in
Dhaka, “and I still consider him a good man. I never thought he could be
involved in an incident like this.”
Ullah’s wife and mother-in-law, who spoke to
The Washington Post from behind a door with their faces covered, said the
incident in New York blindsided them. They said Ullah had shown no signs of
being radicalized in phone conversations or on his recent visits to Dhaka.
“If I knew this was going to happen, we’d
never have let him leave,” said Mahfuza Akter, Ullah’s mother-in-law.
In a news conference here Wednesday,
counterterrorism chief Monirul Islam said that Ullah’s attempted attack was
inspired by the writings and online sermons of a Bangladeshi cleric named
Jasimuddin Rahmani, the spiritual leader of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a
banned Bangladeshi terrorist organization. Rahmani is serving a five-year
prison term after his conviction on charges of inciting the murder of a
Bangladeshi blogger.
Islam said that Ferdous and her family had,
under questioning, suggested that link — implying that they did have some
inkling of his radicalization.
Violent rhetoric from ABT has been blamed for
a series of murders of atheist and secular bloggers and activists. In 2015, the
group published a hit list of writers and activists from around the world.
Law enforcement officials in the United
States said that Ullah told them he was inspired by propaganda from the Islamic
State terrorist group.
In recent years, Bangladesh has been shaken
by a string of terrorist attacks. In July 2016, more than 20 people were killed
at the upmarket Holey Artisan Bakery during a 12-hour siege by militants. A
week later, in eastern Bangladesh, four people were killed at a prayer
gathering to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that ends the holy month of
Ramadan. Islamist movements have been active since the country’s independence
but recently have been resurgent, with militants targeting secular aspects of
Bangladeshi society.
Authorities said Ullah, who has lived in the
United States since 2011, was not directly linked with militant groups in
Bangladesh. Islam said that his investigation so far suggested that Ullah most
likely acted alone and was radicalized in the United States. He said Ullah’s
name had never appeared on anti-terrorism intelligence lists and that he was
most probably “self-radicalized” on the Internet.
“When he came [back] here to get married, he
was bearded and used to be a pious man,” Islam said. “But normally, being pious
does not create any suspicion.”
Ullah visited Bangladesh at least twice in
recent years, once to marry and again in September when he came to visit his
wife and infant child.
When in Dhaka, Ullah lived with Ferdous and
his in-laws in a dimly lit ground-floor apartment in a colorful building in the
Hazaribagh area of the city. A leader at a nearby mosque said he vaguely
recalled Ullah coming to pray but said he never had any lengthy discussions
with him. Neighbors and the building’s caretakers said they exchanged
pleasantries but that Ullah was quiet and kept to himself.
Rahmani, of the ABT, is especially
influential among Bangladeshi émigrés, according to Abdur Rob Khan, a professor
of political science at North South University in Dhaka.
“They invite people for jihad, like,
sacrifice yourself,” he said, speaking about ABT and other radical Islamist
groups that post content online. “They probably attract people in international
situations in the Middle East or with some kind of antagonism to the West.”
Ullah will be tried in the United States. The
family said they have had no contact with him since the incident. Akter,
Ullah’s mother-in-law, said the family will await a verdict.
“We will accept it if he is guilty, but we
will welcome him back if he is proven innocent,” she said.
Azad Majumder contributed to this report.
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