A red alert has been issued across Bangladesh immediately after two death row JMB militants escaped from police custody at a Dhaka court premises on Sunday (Nov 20).

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan came up with the development while talking to journalists at his office at the Secretariat.

He said: ‘We have issued red alert immediately after the incident. We have also alerted the bordering areas so that they cannot leave the country.’

He further said that they would investigate the incident and take proper action if anyone’s negligence was found in this regard.

Besides, Bangladesh police announced Tk 10 lakh for information on each —  convicted to death in publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan murder case — who escaped from the lock-up of a Dhaka court on the day.

Members of banned extremist outfit Ansar Al Islam -- Mainul Islam Shamim, 25, of Sunamganj and Abu Siddique Sohel alias Sakibur, 34, of Lalmonirhat -- were death row convicts in Jagriti Publications publisher Foisal Arefin Dipon murder case.

According to police, the convicts sprayed something on the eyes of two policemen and escaped while they were being taken to the court. 

On February 10, 2021, a Dhaka tribunal sentenced eight members of the banned extremist group to death for killing Dipan in October 2015.

On February 16, 2021, a tribunal in Dhaka sentenced five members of banned extremist outfit Ansar-Al-Islam to death and another to life term imprisonment in a case over the killing of Avijit Roy in February 2015.

BDST: 1853 HRS, NOV 20, 2022
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