Banned militant outfit JMB was reportedly planning to attack the president and the prime minister along with other VIPs in a bid to draw the attention of the international militant organisation Islamic State (IS) and jump-start its activities in Bangladesh.
To implement their plan, the Jama’atul Mujahedin Bangladesh militants had already gathered large amounts of explosives and were reportedly waiting for an opportune moment to carry out the attacks.
The plans came to light after detectives of Dhaka Metropolitan Police held seven JMB members, including the outfit’s acting chief, from Ashulia Landing Station area in the early hours of yesterday. Ten kilograms of explosive gel, four brass idols, books and leaflets preaching militancy were also recovered from their possession.
Without giving details on the type of the explosives gel, police sources said the material would create powerful explosives once added with powdered brass.
Primary interrogation of the arrestees also revealed that the JMB had plans to snatch Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Jashim Uddin Rahmani from police custody, in a manner similar to the previous snatching of three top JMB members in Mymensingh’s Trishal earlier this year.
The arrestees are JMB acting chief Abdullah Al Tasnim alias Nahid, 29, members Md Nayem Ali, 28, Md Sikandar Ali alias Noki, 25, Mahmud Ibne Bashar, 23, Md Masum Billah, 26, Fuad Hasan, 18, and Ali Ahmed, 24.
The JMB acting chief – who faces at least 20 cases – had arrest warrants issued against him as he had been evading court appearances since securing bail from a court in January.
In a press conference at the Media and Community Centre of the DMP yesterday, Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the Detective Branch of police, said the arrested JMB activists were planning on carrying out destructive activities on different major targets including the state’s VVIP and VIP persons.
Monirul did not mention the names of the targeted VVIP persons, but Bangladesh has only two persons with the status: President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The joint commissioner added that the arrestees had also admitted to targeting high-profile personalities in the hopes of drawing the attention of the IS through potential media coverage of the attacks. The plan was also a part of an attempt to revitalise the activities of the JMB members who were silently hiding in different areas of the country.
With the help of telecom specialists Bashar and Noki – who were both arrested yesterday – acting JMB chief Tasnim had also allegedly tried to contact the IS through emails; however, his attempt was futile.
Detectives said Tasnim regularly received advice on how to run the JMB from the daughter and son-in-law of jailed JMB chief Saidur Rahman. Communicating from Pakistan’s Karachi, Javed Akhter – Saidur’s son-in-law – reportedly advised Tasnim to use the internet to gather JMB members and to contact the IS.
Establishing communication with the IS would have only been possible by causing large-scale destructive activities, said Monirul. Some of the JMB members had also collected passports as part of their plan to go to Syria and Iraq for joining the destructive activities by the IS, he added.
Tasnim was also working to recruit meritorious students of public and private universities, the DB official said, adding that Bashar and Noki were working at field level to recruit from universities for the outfit. Bashar is a student of Dhaka University’s tourism and hospitality management department and Noki is a student of North South University, Monirul added.
The militants reportedly planned to provide training on attacking techniques to the recruits at a camp in Bandarban. During initial interrogation, the arrested JMB members also confessed to recruiting female members who would be able to easily enter secret places and collect information for them.
JMB’s plans also included kidnapping jailed Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Jashim in a coordinated attack similar to the Trishal incident in February, in hopes that Jashim’s rescue would bring around 200 active Ansarullah members to support the JMB cause. Two of the JMB leaders who were snatched from police custody in Trishal – Salehin and Mizan – as well as JMB’s West Bengal unit chief Sohel Mahfuz were now advising Tasnim from their hideouts in India, the DB official said.
Without giving details Joint Commissioner Monirul claimed that the arrestees had already admitted to having information on the recent murder of Channel i presenter Nurul Islam Faruki.
Further details could be extracted during remand when the police would also try to extract information on the details and hideouts of other JMB members, Monirul said, adding that the police had information that the JMB still had members hiding in different areas of the capital.
Soon after the arrest of the JMB members, they were shown arrested in two cases filed with the Turag police station and were later placed before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.
DB Inspector Mozammel Haque sought a 10-day remand in each of the two cases. After hearing the plea, Metropolitan Magistrate Rashed Talukder granted a two-day remand for each arrestee.