'Sniper' comment on photo of bus carrying prime minister: Abu Bakr gives confessional statement in court, sent to jail

In Dhaka, Md Abu Bakr Siddique, 22, arrested over a Facebook comment saying “only a sniper was missing” on a post with a photo of a bus carrying Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, has given a confessional statement in court.

After seven days on remand, he gave the confessional statement on Sunday before Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The court later ordered him to be sent to jail.

Abu Bakr was produced before the court on Sunday by the investigation officer, Sub-Inspector Yasin Paik of the Detective Branch's Cyber and Special Crime Division. When the accused agreed to give a confessional statement voluntarily, the investigation officer applied to record it, and the court recorded the statement accordingly.

Investigation officer Yasin Paik said the accused admitted responsibility in his statement before the court. Some important information was obtained from him during interrogation on remand, but those details cannot be disclosed now in the interest of the investigation.

Yasin Paik also said the accused was taken to court after remand and gave his statement around 3pm. Abu Bakr Siddique is the only named accused in the case's FIR. Whether he holds any political post is not yet known, and an inquiry into that is under way.

Earlier, on October 25, the investigation officer produced Abu Bakr Siddique before the court and sought seven days' remand. The court granted the application.

The remand application said it is necessary to uncover the main mystery of the case and to identify and arrest those involved in a conspiracy to kill Bangladesh's head of government. It also said it needs to be investigated whether any organised terrorist group, sniper or arms-supplying ring is behind the incident.

The application further said it needs to be examined whether the accused is a member of any organised terrorist group, ring or banned organisation, and whether any ring or planner is connected to the incident.

According to case sources, on October 21, three photos of a bus carrying Prime Minister Tarique Rahman were posted in a Facebook group named ‘The Beauty of Rajshahi’. The post's caption questioned the use of a Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) bus in Rajshahi instead of a red-and-green bulletproof bus for the prime minister.

In the comments of that post, an account named ‘MD Abu Bakr Siddique’ wrote: “What a big opportunity it was, only a sniper was missing.”

Later, with the help of technology, the user of that Facebook account, Abu Bakr Siddique, was identified and arrested from the Gholharia Dakshinpara area under Paba Police Station in Rajshahi. His father, Md Aynal Haque, was also detained at the time. Police said his father was released after no involvement was found in the preliminary investigation.

After the arrest, the mobile phone used by Abu Bakr Siddique was seized. The remand application said information was found on the phone about objectionable comments on various Facebook pages and groups.

SI Md Manik Hossain of the DB's Cyber and Special Crime (North) Division filed the case under the Anti-Terrorism Act at Ramna Police Station in the capital over the incident.