Detectives suspect that local militants Ansarullah Bangla Team may be linked with the international Al-Qaeda and has been working as a proxy of “Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent” – AQIS, in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
According to the investigators, the plan to set up Al-Qaeda in the sub-continent to establish an Islamic state was first exposed in September last year.
Inspired by a video of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the Bangladeshi-born British Samiun Rahman alias Ibne Hadan, 28, admitted after his arrest on September 29 last year that they were indeed working for the international terrorist group.
Detectives earlier said top leaders of banned local militant groups and Ansarullah had decided to work together since they had the same goal of establishing an Islamic state in Bangladesh, including parts of bordering areas of Myanmar and India.
The link between local militants and Al-Qaeda and Taliban surfaced again after a recent video message from Al-Qaeda claimed the responsibility of killing Bangladesh-born American Avijit Roy.
A Twitter account of Ansar Bangla 7 commended the murder on the Dhaka University campus. Later detectives claimed that sleeper cells of Ansarullah, run by Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani, had planned and executed the murder. Rapid Action Battalion personnel soon arrested Shafiur Rahman Farabi, leader of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir, for instigating the murder as he had on several occasions threatened to kill Avijit.
Detectives first traced the activities of Ansarullah after the killing of secular blogger Ahmed Rajeeb Haider on February 15, 2013, although Rahmani had started operations five years before in 2008.
Police arrested Rahmani from a militant training centre of Barguna on August 12, 2013 with 31 followers. Now in jail, Rahmani is facing trial for Rajeeb's murder.
After the recent bank heist at Ashulia, police found the involvement of Ansarullah members in the incident.
During interrogation, Rahmani claimed that he had formed Ansarullah with Al-Qaeda's help.
“Ansarullah is one of Al-Qaeda’s closest militant outfits and its members follow Al-Qaeda’s operational style. We have found involvement of the group with some recent killings,” Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of Detective Branch of Police, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“We are not certain, though, whether it is a front for Al-Qaeda,” said Monirul, also chief of DB police, who are investigating the Avijit murder case with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Regarding the recent video posted reportedly by the AQIS, Monirul said they were analysing the source.
According to detectives, Rahmani claimed he had visited Afghanistan in 2004 to meet Taliban chief Mullah Omar and Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. But he failed to meet Laden for security reasons.
Rahmani returned to Bangladesh after getting important instructions from Mullah Omar. He also went to Pakistan. In March 2010, Yousuf Mehzabin and Mohammad Ishaq Mollah, two Pakistani citizens who are involved with al-Qaeda, visited Bangladesh and met with Rahmani.
In absence of Rahmani, the outfit is believed to be run by Redwanul Azad Rana, a former North South University student. Rana is also named in the Rajeeb murder case as a planner, and police are after him for his alleged involvement in Avijit’s murder.
But detectives recently said Rana had fled the country after the Avijit murder.
Sources in the intelligence agencies say the spiritual leader of Ansarullah is Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based al-Qaeda cleric.
Several other banned militant outfits including Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Huji) and Islamist parties have links with Al-Qaeda and Taliban, according to law enforcers.
Ansarullah members, estimated to be around 400, are active on Facebook, Twitter and blogs to inspire youths towards an armed struggle to establish Islam by spreading the sermons of Rahmani.
DB chief Monirul claimed they were keeping an eye on the social media sites and hoped to arrest the militants by tracing their location.