Mizan, wife disowned by parents for militancy

Detained Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) man Mizan alias ‘Boma Mizan’ was disowned by his parents five years ago for his Islamist terrorist connection, and his first wife Sharmin was also disowned by her family three months after they had come to know that her husband is a terrorist.
“We got married in 2006 after I got my higher secondary certificate from Korotia College in Tangail. I fell in love with him while I was a student, Mizan was an employee of a computer shop in the district headquarters,” Sharmin, daughter of Iman Ali of Korotia, disclosed to The Daily Star yesterday.
Sources said Mizan also has an estranged second wife, who left him six months ago after she had come to know about his JMB link.
Lying on a bed in Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with bandages at the wrist of her right arm where there had been a hand before she blew it up with a grenade on Thursday, and with her two wounded children on her side, Sharmin said she met Mizan of Jamalpur on her way to an HSC preparatory coaching centre in Tangail town, and soon she fell in love with him.
“After dating for seven months we got married, and our married life started at my father’s house”, Sharmin said adding, “Three months into the marriage, I and my family came to know that Mizan is a JMB man and his family had disowned him for that reason.”
“My family also ended up disowning me. So Mizan and I came to Dhaka where our two children were born, and during two years and seven months we changed six houses,” she went on saying, “At one stage, I was won over by my husband’s persuasion and accepted his path.”
“My husband told me that it’s better to commit suicide than to surrender,” she said adding, “I tried to commit suicide, along with my two kids. When I detonated the grenade, my daughter Tora was on my lap and my son Naim was also next to me. The grenade exploded in my right hand.”
“I didn’t throw it at the Rab men, the door was closed.”
She said her husband left their belongings in previous residences thrice as they changed dwellings six times during their short stay in the capital.
Before their arrest on Thursday night, they had not faced any trouble, she added.
“Mizan is a son of a poor family and his father is deceased. I never met any of his family,” Sharmin said.
Meanwhile, Rab intelligence sources said Mizan’s estranged second wife Mariam Akhter alias Mukti, daughter of Abdul Majid of Dighi Dampara under Shibganj upazila in Bogra, left Mizan because she did not have an amiable relationship with his first wife Sharmin.
“Mizan also married Mukti by hiding to her his first marriage and his JMB connection,” a senior official of Rab intelligence wing said adding, “Mukti’s father took his daughter back from Mizan’s residence.”
Rab officials also said Mizan was maintaining several houses simultaneously in the capital.

Courtesy of The Daily Star