Akayed Ullah, accused of setting off a bomb in a crowded New York subway passage on Monday, was apparently influenced by sermons and write-ups of radical Muslim preacher Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani, police said yesterday.

The man also appeared to have no links to radical groups in Bangladesh, said law enforcers.

“Akayed had asked his wife to read the literature and listen to the sermons of Ansarullah Bangla Team [ABT] spiritual leader Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani when he last visited Bangladesh in September,” said Monirul Islam, chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of DMP.

He was addressing a press conference at the media centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday.

CTTC officials on Tuesday interrogated Akayed's wife Jannatul Ferdous Jui, her father Julfiqar Haidher and mother Mahfuza Akther. The officials, however, didn't find any book of Rahmani at Julfiqar's house.

Meanwhile, Jannatul yesterday said she could not imagine in her wildest dream that her husband would get involved in such an attack.

“I still cannot believe my husband can carry out such an attack,” Jannatul told The Daily Star at her father's home on Moneshwer Road in the city.

She said she didn't notice any change in her husband's behavior or lifestyle when he came to Dhaka in September.

The ABT, later renamed as Ansar Al Islam or Bangladesh branch of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), had claimed responsibilities for the murder of a number of bloggers, publishers and free-thinkers. The government banned the ABT on May 27 in 2015.

Rahmani is now behind bars. He was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment in December 2015 for the killing of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider on February 15, 2013. He is also facing several other cases.

In June last year, Director General of Police Bureau of Investigation Banaj Kumar Mazumder sent a letter to the Police Headquarters requesting it to remove all videos of Rahmani's sermons from YouTube as militants had confessed to courts of listening to those before getting involved in militancy.

“We didn't find any criminal record of Akayed or his link to militancy link,” said the CTTC chief.

He also said they also didn't find any criminal record of those with whom Akayed used to communicate during his stay in Bangladesh.

Police were suspecting that Akayed might have been radicalised from internet contents after going to New York, he added.

“Akayed didn't mingle with any of his friends or relatives. He spent most of his time at home,” said Monirul, adding that they were looking for his friends with whom he used to maintain contact in Bangladesh.

He said they would extend their full support to the US investigators if they seek any support under a “mutual legal agreement treaty”.

According to CTTC officials, an uncle of Akayed took his elder brother to New York along with his family when Arayed was seven. His brother then set up a business there and arranged migration for all his other family members.

Akayed was a BBA student at Dhaka City College when he migrated to the USA in 2011.

He came to Bangladesh in January last year. After getting married to Jannatul, he returned to New York.

He last came to Bangladesh on September 8 this year and returned to USA the following month.

Akayed's family members told interrogators that he came to Bangladesh to see his six-month-old baby boy.

“During his last visit to Bangldesh, he spent most of his time with his wife and baby boy,” Monirul said.

WIFE CANNOT BELIEVE IT

Akayed's wife said her husband used to advise her to read Rahmani's literature as a religious book.

She said CTTC officials checked her mobile phone on Tuesday and found an app on Rahmani. But she claimed she had no idea about Rahmani.

Jannatul's further said she often talked to Akayed over phone early in the morning. She even talked with her husband on Monday morning, but never thought that he could get involved in such an activity just a couple of hours later.

Akayed's mother-in-law Mahfuza demanded a fair investigation into the incident to check whether Akayed was guilty as they never noticed any extremist behaviour in him.

According to NY police, Akayed reportedly set off a crude bomb strapped to his body in a crowded New York subway passage on Monday. But the device failed to detonate properly, leaving him the only one seriously injured.

Akayed survived with burns and lacerations and was taken to a hospital in police custody. Three bystanders sustained minor injuries.