Members of Bangladesh Jihadi Group, a platform of local militant groups who follow the strategies of international terrorist organisation Islamic State, were planning to kill noted persons of the country, after collecting money by robbing two banks, detectives say.
The platform was launched last year with members of banned groups – Harkat-ul Jihad Al Islami Bangladesh (HujiB), Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) – only to dodge the eye of law enforcers and escape from the punishment under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (L), Imran H Sarker
The militant groups earlier used to get financial support from different foreign NGOs, locally influential businessmen and well-wishers. Due to strict vigilance and the arrest of some financiers, funding has became hard for them, Sanowar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch of police, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“So, in the face of a fund crunch, the militant groups have started committing crimes like bank robbery to run their operations,” he added.
According to the detectives, supporters of the platform were all set to conduct a robbery at the branch of a private bank in Saidpur.
The same group earlier targeted secular writer Avijit Roy but another group carried out the murder on February 26
Later they were set to kill noted writer Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, also a teacher of Shahjalal University, and Gonojagoron Moncho Spokesperson Imran H Sarker, who spearheaded an unprecedented movement demanding death penalty for all war criminals.
The same group earlier targeted secular writer Avijit Roy but another group carried out the murder on February 26. Recently Ansarullah members are suspected for the attack on Avijit and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya.
Detectives got such information by interrogating nine members of the jihadi group, including their spiritual leader Maulana Nurullah Kashemi, arrested on Sunday. They are now in seven-day police remand.
During the arrests, the law enforcers recovered 5kg explosives, bomb-making materials, eight bombs, four machetes and jihadi books. They also unearthed a modern laboratory.
Prof Zafar Iqbal and Imran were also mentioned in the list of 10 persons who recently received death threats reportedly by Ansarullah.
Maulana Kashemi in his speech had mentioned that Prof Zafar Iqbal and Imran were enemies of Islam and it is their sacred responsibility to kill them, one of the arrestees, Dhaka University student Kazi Iftekharul Khaled, said.
“As per the directives, our leader [now absconding] asked us to kill the duo,” Khaled was quoted by a high official of DB.
“As per the directives, our leader [now absconding] asked us to kill the duo,” Khaled was quoted by a high official of DB.
“Earlier we planned to kill Avijit Roy. We bought three machetes and three pistols. But before the mission, our [absconding] leader took away the arms from us on a corridor of Kakrail Mosque. After some days, we learnt that Avijit Roy was murdered. I do not who killed him,” Khaled said.
Detectives say the fugitive leader, who is a lawyer, is also the mastermind behind HujiB and Ansarullah. “Some mysterious murder cases can be resolved once he is arrested,” the DB official said.
As a part of their robbery plan, the jihadi group members visited the bank branch in Saidpur and took photographs of the building. They targeted the branch considering least security measures.
Another arrestee Din Islam planned the bank heist and completed the necessary drawing of the branch.
“Explosives and arms were taken to Saidpur to conduct the robbery. The jihadists were holding their final meeting in the Banasree area of the capital during the arrest,” the DB official said.
Before this, they completed testing the explosives at a makeshift laboratory in Jajira area of Shariatpur and then returned to the capital.
DB official Sanowar said they were yet to get information on the second bank branch located in the capital targeted by the jihadi group as the second mission.
“We have already prepared a draft of their plans and will inform the Bangladesh Bank and the targeted private bank asking them to tighten security measures,” he added.
In April, nine people were killed when militants tried in vain to rob a bank in Ashulia near the capital. Earlier this month, police detained the mastermind of that attempted heist, who is also known as a leader of banned outfit Ansarullah. Other robbers have also confessed in police custody that they belonged to that outfit.