The daughter of a former BNP whip and two of her associates, held allegedly for providing Tk1.08 crore to hybrid militant organisation Shahid Hamza Brigade, were placed on a four-day remand yesterday.
RAB has claimed that Supreme Court lawyers barrister Shakila Farzana, 39 and Md Hasanuzzaman Liton, 30, and Dhaka Judge’s Court lawyer Mahfuz Chowdhury Bapon, 25, were arrested when they came out of their chamber “Law Cornerstone” on Dhanmondi 27 of the capital around 11pm on Tuesday.
Shakila is the incumbent joint general secretary of the Supreme Court wing of pro-BNP Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum. She is the daughter of Wahidul Alam, a former BNP lawmaker from Chittagong.
Members of Rapid Action Battalion 7 made the arrests with the help of RAB 2 and 4 based on information given by its members now in custody, and disclosed the matter before the media yesterday.
In April, RAB discovered the activities of Hamza Brigade after they detained four of its members along with 10 firearms including five AK47 rifles and a large cache of ammunition from a hill in Lotmoni area under Banshkhali upazila.
Since February 19 until June first week, RAB 7 detained 29 members of the outfit including its second-in-command, wing chiefs and arms suppliers in several drives.
Formed in 2013, it aimed at launching an armed revolution in greater Chittagong including the hill tracts to protest against the oppression of Muslims in Myanmar and across the world.
During a press briefing at the RAB 7 Headquarters in Patenga of Chittagong, its Commanding Officer Lt Col Mifta Uddin said that apart from the trio, a Dubai resident named Allama Libdi had also been financing the militant group.
Libdi visited Bangladesh several times and gave money to its members, most of who are former activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, Hefazat-e-Islam and other banned militant organisations, RAB said.
The elite crime busters are yet to arrest the chief of the outfit, who is believed to be staying in Malaysia.
“We found that barrister Shakila deposited Tk25 lakh and Tk27 lakh for the outfit in two phases while Liton deposited Tk31 lakh and Bapon Tk25 lakh,” he said.
Lt Col Mifta said that they had come to know about the three financiers after scrutinising the confessional statements of the members arrested earlier. “We conducted investigations in line with the court order and with the assistance of Bangladesh Bank’s Credit Information Bureau.”
Shakila’s husband Md Bahauddin said that he had no idea why his wife had been arrested. Her father Wahidul Alam could not be contacted over his mobile phone despite repeated attempts.
The RAB official said that the organisers had held their first meeting in November 2013 at a hotel near Foy’s Lake of the port city in a bid to support the tormented Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar by forming an NGO named Love for Rohingya. They planned that the Hamza Brigade would be operated under the cover of the NGO.
But later they dropped the plan and formed three wings, namely army, media and dawa. Of those, army has three sub-wings – white, green and blue. The organisers had also planned to create medical, naval and other new groups. The 29 members arrested earlier include its Second-in-Command Nasir Hossen alias Sajol.
RAB previously said that each of its wings comprises seven members – all trained up as a “one man army.”
On February 19, RAB 7 busted Hamza Brigade’s theoretical training centre “Al Madrasatul Abu Bakar” where the members had been given training using audio-visual materials in the guise of an Arabic language coaching centre.
On February 21, the elite force busted the outfit’s military training centre at Lotmoni Hill of Banshkhali from where a huge stash of arms, ammunition and military training equipment were seized.
A week after the drive, RAB discovered the explosives warehouse of the outfit in Halishahar area. None of the masterminds could be arrested during the three drives.
“RAB 7 previously found five bank accounts from where the Hamza Brigade got money to purchase arms, ammunition, explosives and other tools for running their activities. So far, they received Tk1,38,70,000,” Mifta said.
Of the amount, Tk1.08 crore was given by the three lawyers. “The group has more financiers and we are working to nab them,” he added.
The trio were placed before the court of Banshkhali Senior Judicial Magistrate Sazzad Hossain yesterday evening seeking seven-day remand for each of the arrestees.
The court granted the police four days to interrogate them, Banshkhali Officer-in-Charge Swapan Majumder said.
Following the drives earlier this year, RAB and police said banned militant outfits – JMB, HujiB and Hizb ut-Tahrir – were regrouping in Chittagong to form a new state incorporating Chittagong, CHT, Cox’s Bazar and parts of the bordering areas of Myanmar and India, with the help of Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. It was also learnt that several members of international terrorist group Islamic State visited Chittagong last year to meet the local militants.
Detectives have also learnt that the detained chiefs of outlawed militant groups including Ansarullah Bangla Team at a meeting inside Kashimpur High Security Jail last year had agreed to work together, since their aim was the same.
Ansarullah was banned on May 25 this year as the sixth militant group. Its chief Jasim Uddin Rahmani, who follows al-Qaeda and Taliban, is accused of promoting armed attacks to establish their radical form of Islamic rule.
Earlier this year, the law enforcers discovered the trace of two new organisations working as umbrella for the banned militant groups – Bangladesh Jihadi Group and Junud Al Towhid Wal Khalifah.