Second Bangladesh militant believed to be Monash student

A file picture of Rohan.

PETALING JAYA: International news sources have named a second suspected Bangladeshi militant, believed to have studied in the same Malaysian private university as Nibras Islam.

Nibras is the man identified by social media users to be part of the group that killed 22 people at an upscale cafe in Bangladesh's capital in a terror attack.

According to Bangladeshi English newspaper The Daily Star, a man called Rohan Imtiaz (pic) had "also attended Monash university" after a stint at an elite secondary school in Bangladesh.

The report indicated that Rohan may be the son of a senior Bangladeshi politician.

Bangladeshi authorities have yet to release all the images and full names of the attackers. Therefore, the identities of the attackers have yet to be officially confirmed.

In an NDTV report, Rohan's relatives claimed that he was not pictured among the bodies of the alleged terrorists, which were released by Bangladeshi police.

However, social media users have linked Rohan's image to another image released by terror monitoring group SITE Intelligence which depicted five youths holding arms and standing in front of an IS flag.

The five youths were said to have been the Dhaka gunmen.

Similar to the other suspects, Rohan vanished months before the attack. A missing person's report was made by his father on Jan 1.

On Friday night, seven so-called Islamic State (IS) militants killed 22 people including two police officers at the Western-styled café in Dhaka.

The militants hacked most of their victims with machetes and left their bleeding bodies on the floor.

Six gunmen were shot dead by security forces during the siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe.

One of the hostage-takers was taken alive and is now being interrogated by Bangladeshi authorities.

One of the dead gunmen had purportedly studied commerce at Monash Malaysia and was revealed by social media users as Nibras Islam.

Various undated images of Nibras in Malaysia are available online - at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) with friends and posing outside a waterpark in Selangor.

A Facebook selfie of Nibras and an unidentified friend dated January 12 has also been circulating online. The location tagged in the image was at an expensive coffee shop in Gulshan district, the same neighbourhood where Friday's attacks took place.

A video of Nibras conversing with friends also showed that he was fluent in English.

Nibras' Facebook page has been deactivated, while his Instagram is set to private.

Malaysian authorities met with Monash Malaysia to discuss the allegations that an alumni may be a member of the militant group.

The Higher Education Ministry also said that it will investigate the allegations and work alongside enforcement agencies on the matter.

In a press conference on Monday, IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar confirmed that the two Bangladesh nationals had studied in Monash but that police were unable to confirm if they were victims or aggressors in the attack.