Neaz Morshed Raja had abandoned his wife and young children to go and fight for the Caliphate. He posted a video, just before blowing himself up in Tikrit. His name had been included in the list of young people who disappeared after the attack on the Dhaka coffee shop.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) - "He said he was going to pray, but he never came back home." This is the story from Zannatul Mawa, the sister of a Bangladesh militant, radicalized at home who went to fight in Iraq in the Islamic Caliphate file.
The man, named Neaz Morshed Raja, appeared recently in an Isis video while preparing to carry out a suicide bombing in Tikrit. The footage of the attack was in October of 2015, but was made public only yesterday. The militiaman’s family, who had reported him missing and hoped for his return, said: "We do not understand how he could become a radical of the Islamic state."
Zannatul said that his brother was a young man like many others "and loved to go to parties. Then he changed. He started to not go to parties, but to attend the mosque. He had become a religious person. We were happy about his transformation - We do not understand how he could make such a choice."
Neaz Morshed Raja left home two years ago, leaving his family in poverty and despair. "His wife - continues his sister - has faced huge problems, being left alone with two children." The woman reported that after his disappearance, the family learned that Neaz Morshed Raja had moved abroad and would not return to Bangladesh.
His name appeared for the first time in the lists of disappeared persons, drawn up after the massacre of July 1, 2016 on the Holey Artisan Bakery Cafe of the capital, during which 20 people died. After the attack the authorities encouraged parents to report the disappearance of their relatives. So it appeared that many young Bangladeshis, often indoctrinated by local imams and professors, have left their families to fight with extremists.
Fariduddin, the uncle of the militant, declared: "His father, who died in 2011, was educated and kind. I cannot understand how Neaz could have become a militant. If my brother was still alive, he would have a heart attack. "